The Château de Chaumont-sur-Loire is hosting a new edition of its photography festival. Until February 23rd 2025, five artists will be exhibiting their series on the theme of nature.
It’s under a mild autumn sun that the artists met for the first time at the Château de Chaumont; three are French, Letizia Le Fur, Laurent Millet and Nicolas Bruant. The other two came from afar, Edward Burtynsky from Canada and Jens Liebchen from Berlin. They were chosen by Chantal Colleu-Dumond, curator of Chaumont-photo-sur-Loire and director of the estate. Convinced that art can have an impact on the world by raising awareness, this art lover has been bringing together photographers’ work on the theme of nature every year for the last seven years. Exhibited in an exceptional setting, the works occupy the centuries-old walls of this 12th-century château.
Celebrating nature in all its forms
Colour is the common thread running through the work of these five photographers. Whether it’s black and white in Nicolas Bruant’s work or blue in Laurent Millet’s cyanographs, colour is an aesthetic and intellectual process that enriches these artists’ series.
Edward Burtynsky’s series is the most colourful. To produce his ‘African Studies’, the photographer travelled to various African countries to capture aerial views of industrial sites (factories, quarries, mines, etc.). Shot in large format, the images are immediately striking for their beauty, while at the same time depicting areas that have been forever scarred by human activity. ‘I help people to feel the problem’, solemnly explains Edward Burtynsky, who has been documenting mining sites around the world for years.
Jean Liebchen also denounces man’s hold over nature, with his ‘System’ series, discovered by Chantal Colleu-Dumond at a Paris Photo exhibition. ‘I fell in love with this series,’ enthuses the curator. These snow-covered Japanese trees are in the tradition of Japanese photography. At first glance, visitors think they are at the foot of Mount Fuji, sheltered by the calm of a thousand-year-old forest. Then, as you move closer to the image, you see a car taking shape in the shadow of the snowflakes, then another and finally the spectre of a road. I lived in Tokyo for three years,’ says Jens Liebchen. When I went for walks in the parks, I saw a very codified nature. Man’s influence is omnipresent, right from the planting of the trees, which is calculated to the centimetre. It’s a far cry from the barren plains of Mount Fuji… In the image of Japanese society, this series of trees forms a system imbued with sprezzatura, a feigned grace that is in fact finely crafted.
White, that non-colour, is also one of the essences of Letizia Le Fur’s ‘Decolorisation’ series. Letizia Le Fur, who usually works with small touches of colour in her photographs, has chosen to retain only shades of grey. Thought you knew the landscapes of Tahiti? Letizia Le Fur redraws them, far from the paradisiacal image that we may have of the island. But what do these faded images represent? The landscapes seem apocalyptic and inhuman. Everyone can choose what they want to see. For the photographer, ‘these shades represent what [she wanted] to say’. Polynesia remains a territory scarred by the nuclear tests that took place on the island just 20 years ago. The white-shaded powder can also be seen as coral bleaching, one of the consequences of ocean acidification.
The diversity of print formats leaves room for a plethora of interpretations, the hallmark of a great work of art.
Nicolas Bruant, on the other hand, doesn’t care about the anecdotal nature of his shots. In his ‘Trees’ series, a palm tree from Mauritius stands next to an acacia from Kenya. He has been travelling the world for fifty years, and this series on trees was constructed by working on his archives. Several of his images, in high-contrast black and white, are being printed for the first time.
The photographer stresses the importance of the density of the blacks, which gives these shots of trees their distinctive style.
One of the artist’s friends exclaimed: ‘You capture flashes of light’ – a very apt remark, for in Bruant’s photography we witness the marvellous moment of the birth of light. There’s no need for the anecdotal, as the artist returns to the essence of photography, namely drawing with light. Here, he seems to be immortalising the birth of nature.
During a residency in Indonesia, Laurent Millet photographed jungle landscapes and developed them using cyanography technique. These photographs do not represent a wilderness, but a park. The real adventure lies in the technique used by Laurent Millet. Cyanography produces unique blues, sometimes turning green-grey in certain prints. The artist has chosen to print his photographs on a gilt domino paper, a paper used for wallpaper and very popular in the 19th century. Set in a particularly bright room, Laurent Millet’s landscapes stand side by side with those of the Loire Valley in the beautiful autumn light.
The magical setting of Chaumont-sur-Loire sublimates the work of these five artists. Art may not have the direct power to change the world, but its beauty and poetry can inspire us to make it a better place every day.
Laurine Varnier
Chaumont-photo-sur-Loire – Winter Exhibitions
16 November 2024 – 23 February 2025
Chaumont-sur-Loire Estate
41150 Chaumont-sur-Loire
www.domaine-chaumont.fr
