The 21st edition of the photography festival in the heart of La Gacilly in Morbihan is honoring Australia this year, while also exploring environmental and societal issues around the world.
In just over twenty years, the Morbihan festival, founded by Jacques Rocher, has become one of France's most important photographic events. Year after year, it has contributed to the vitality of a rural area, showcasing the multifaceted nature of the discipline. This 21st edition is no exception, with a rich program of over 800 photographs, curated by Cyril Drouhet. The La Gacilly Photo Festival now takes stock of the fragility of our times, which have witnessed an accumulation of "violent and unpredictable shocks," including the Covid-19 pandemic, lockdowns, inflation, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Hamas attack of October 7th, the political climate, and the rise of isolationism. All this unfolds against the backdrop of a suffering Earth grappling with climate change, the depletion of natural resources, and the impact of greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprints.
HEADING FOR AUSTRALIA
“Overcoming our fears to preserve hope”—this is one of the key themes with which the photography exhibition opened its 21st edition, celebrating Australia, a country rarely in the spotlight. Several renowned photographers, mostly of Australian origin, offer a powerful, poetic, and unvarnished perspective on the land of Oz. Each brings their own vision, highlighting the most dramatic problems facing this island nation in Oceania, such as the lack of constitutional recognition of Aboriginal peoples since the massive arrival of settlers, the devastating bushfires that have destroyed thousands of homes and killed over a billion animals, and the Great Barrier Reef, which is gradually disappearing. Other committed perspectives complement this selection, extending to the rest of the world, through mining in the Andean countries, extreme weather phenomena, food issues and the depletion of natural resources, while also making room for beauty, delicacy, poetry and hope.
FIRES AND COUNTERFIRES, BY MATTHEW ABBOTT
This Sydney-based storyteller and photojournalist has produced numerous reports around the world, focusing in recent years on his native Australia and neighboring countries. His work centers on the climate crisis, while offering a humanist perspective that fosters a deeper understanding of social issues. Matthew Abbott has received three World Press Photo Awards, one of which is dedicated to his powerful documentary work on the "Black Summer," the tragic bushfires that ravaged the island continent between 2019 and 2020. This work notably includes his image of a kangaroo running past a burning house. With this series, he highlights the practice of controlled burning used by Aboriginal people above Arnhem Land in northern Australia. This ancestral practice, employed at the beginning of the dry season, helps preserve biodiversity and prevent fires from devastating the forests, thus improving their ancestral lands and contributing to the development of their communities.
LOCATION: MARSH GARDEN
SURVIVALS, BY AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
The festival is renewing its partnership with Agence France-Presse (AFP) and is showcasing the work of several photojournalists, such as Torsten
Blackwood, Anoek de Groot, Saeed Khan, and Peter Parks focus on the hidden realities faced by Indigenous peoples in Oceania and Australia. In October 2023, Australians rejected a constitutional reform that would have granted Aboriginal people recognition and rights. This people has inhabited these lands for over 60,000 years, having arrived during the last Ice Age. The images presented in La Gacilly shed light on these Indigenous people, who today represent only 3,8% of the Australian population. Behind the folkloric images, they reveal "second-class citizens in the eyes of the authorities, individuals underrepresented in national institutions, plagued by poverty, unemployment, and inadequate housing."
LOCATION: AFF GARDEN
IN SEARCH OF EDEN, BY TAMARA DEAN
The artistic practice of the 48-year-old Australian virtuoso encompasses photography, installation, and moving images. Tamara Dean grew up north of Sydney on a property backing onto the bush. She has always explored the relationship between humans and the natural environment, arguing that humanity is neither separate from nor superior to nature. Her work thus depicts the beauty of this world to better highlight all that we have to lose. This feeling intensified during the Covid-19 pandemic, compounded by the trauma of the Black Summer bushfires. The artist continues to develop her signature style, using the body as a symbol. She exhibits a series of photographs in gardens where her silhouette serves as a...
"A bright spot" in the landscapes. Between dream and reality, his photographs raise awareness of the fragility of our ecosystems.
LOCATION: MARSH GARDEN
ORIGINS, BY BOBBI LOCKYER
This Aboriginal, feminist, and queer artist is a lover of rainbows and vibrant colors. Committed to defending Indigenous peoples, she draws inspiration from ancestral stories, the beauty of her natural environment, the ocean waves, and her deep commitment to her own community to transcend conventions. Her work offers a true window into the intimate. Bobbi Lockyer uses her art, fashion, and photography to raise awareness about social justice, Indigenous and women's rights, as well as motherhood, transmission, and natural heritage. As with her photograph of Uluru, imposing
A glowing red monolith in the heart of Australia, embodying its full power and a true sacred symbol of Aboriginal land. This creative prodigy has collaborated with, among others, Nikon, Apple, Google, and Warner Music, has been featured in magazines like Vogue, and her fashion has graced the runways of Paris Fashion Week.
LOCATION: END OF THE BRIDGE AND IRONWORK SQUARE
THE CALL OF THE OCEANS, BY NARELLE AUTIO
This Adelaide native has been documenting the interactions between humans and the three oceans bordering Australia for over twenty years. Her subtle work focuses on natural elements while developing an aesthetic approach. Narelle Autio captures the essence of bodies interacting with water. She creates images where individuals appear both supported and distorted by this underwater world, surrounded by air bubbles that transform them into surreal figures, bordering on abstraction. She also focuses on fleeting, colorful, and evanescent landscapes, often destined to disappear into the oceans. The exhibition also features images she created with her partner Trent Parke, whose work is also on display in La Gacilly.
LOCATION: GREAT OAK
AN UNFAKED AUSTRALIA, BY TRENT PARKE
Winner of four World Press Photo awards, Trent Parke is the first Australian photographer to join the Magnum agency. A native of Newcastle, New South Wales, the 53-year-old photographer developed a passion for photography at the age of 12, using his mother's Pentax Spotmatic and the family laundry room as a darkroom. He quickly gained recognition for his work that explores identity, place, and family life. His documentary approach lies somewhere between fiction and reality, poetry and dark humor, offering an emotional and psychological portrait of his native Australia, from the Southern Outback to its bustling beaches. The exhibition features images from his book *Minutes to Midnight*, for which he traveled 90,000 kilometers across the land of Oz with his partner Narelle Autio, mentioned above, and from his series *Welcome to Nowhere*. Both have gathered glimpses of dusty outback towns, in which the impact of human habitation on the
The landscape produces surreal situations.
LOCATION: GREAT OAK
FRAGMENTS OF WILDLIFE, BY ANNE ZAHALKA
This leading figure in Australian contemporary art, whose career spans forty years, is one of Australia's most renowned photographers. Her work explores points of cultural and environmental tension, examining them with humor and a critical eye. Her artistic practice deconstructs familiar scenes, recreating them in alternative narratives and reflecting the cultural diversity of Australian society and the ecological impact of the climate crisis. Her work is being presented here for the first time in France. While the species she captures are threatened by urbanization and the effects of climate change, the 67-year-old photographer transports them into a phantasmagorical world using the techniques of naturalists of yesteryear.
LOCATION: RUE LA FAYETTE
ACROSS CITIES, BY JOEL MEYEROWITZ
A giant of contemporary photography and an undisputed master of color, Joel Meyerowitz invites us to revisit his work that has explored the American Way of Life. For over sixty years, this street, portrait, and landscape photographer, now 86 years old, has explored the urban effervescence and teeming life of a constantly evolving America. His images have become, for the most part, icons of modern photography. He is notably responsible for those that followed the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and those of Ground Zero, published in his book *Aftermath: World Trade Center Archive* by Phaidon in 2006. "More than a simple retrospective," explains Cyril Drouhet, curator of the exhibition, "this exhibition is intended as a journey through the evolution and diversification of the American cities he has visited throughout his life."
LOCATION: MEADOW
IN THE EYE OF THE STORM, BY MITCH DOBROWNER
This 68-year-old photographer, originally from New York and living in California since he was 21, has made a name for himself with his extraordinary work capturing extreme weather phenomena in black and white. For twenty years, this cyclone chaser has been capturing the awe-inspiring power of typhoons, lightning, thunderstorms, storms, ominous clouds, and the most violent weather events, which are becoming increasingly frequent with climate change. "His photographs are paintings of the apocalypse," the curator aptly summarizes. This power of black and white stems from his lifelong admiration for Ansel Adams, a master of American landscape photography. Since then, he has tirelessly created images that evoke his vision of the planet, where aesthetics and enigma vie with emotion.
LOCATION: POST OFFICE GARDEN
FEEDING THE PLANET, BY GEORGE STEINMETZ
The American photojournalist, a regular contributor to National Geographic, The New York Times, and Geo magazine, is renowned for his spectacular aerial images of landscapes and climate change. He has produced some forty essays, authored around twenty articles, and won numerous awards. George Steinmetz is also a regular at the La Gacilly Festival. This year, he returns to Morbihan to exhibit his long-term series, Feed the Planet, the result of ten years of investigations into global food supplies in more than 40 countries. "This project aims to show how our food is produced, so that we can make more informed decisions," he emphasizes. "But also how the world can meet the challenge of feeding humanity without putting more natural land under cultivation."
LOCATION: GARAGE
THE DAMNATIONS OF NATURE, BY ALICE PALLOT
The French photographer, who works between Paris and Brussels, explores the connections between science, humanity, and the natural environment. In her creative process, she questions the ambiguous relationship humans have with the planet. Winner this year of the Leica Award for New Forms of Environmental Photography, supported by the magazine De l'air, Alice Pallot presents her series Cursed Algae. These images highlight the proliferation of green algae on the Breton coast, which has become a major environmental issue. This project continues her research focused on the fragility and resilience of the natural world, which she seeks to open up with new perspectives by integrating "the notion of anticipation" into an often futuristic aesthetic.
LOCATION: VEGETABLE MAZE
FRESSON COLORS, BY BERNARD PLOSSU
Many are familiar with the work of this traveling photographer, most of whose work involves reporting from around the world.
Born in southern Vietnam and living in La Ciotat for the past thirty years, the now 79-year-old has been dedicated to photography since childhood, subsequently exploring the world in black and white. His visual language blends subjectivity, simplicity, sensory experience, and a rigorous approach to composition. For this exhibition, the curator has chosen to present his lesser-known work in large format: his Fresson prints. This four-color carbon printing technique is carried out directly from the black and white negative. In 1967, Bernard Plossu met Michel Fresson, the grandson of the inventor, his grandfather Théodore-Henri Fresson, and began using this pigment process, which lends his landscapes an ethereal, poetic quality.
LOCATION: SAINT-VINCENT STREET
THE MEMORY OF STONES, BY SOPHIE ZÉNON
Make way for rural heritage, or rather, for an escape to another place, outside of time! In her work, Sophie Zénon explores memory, history, the
Loss, the passage of time through the relationship between body and landscape. This visual artist, born in Normandy and based in Paris, values experimentation, materiality, and the hybridization of techniques, unfolding in a polyphonic narrative. Here, she crisscrossed the backroads of Morbihan to capture coastal paths and the Breton moorland. She used the technique of
orotonium, an old photographic printing process on glass plates using silver gelatin, onto which she applies a brush
Gold gilding. From the Saint-Nicodème chapel to the megalithic site of Kerzerho, the images become veritable precious objects in shades
black and fire, which echo sacred monuments.
LOCATION: VEGETABLE MAZE
LA GACILLY PHOTO FESTIVAL – HOUSE OF PHOTOGRAPHY
PLACE DE LA FERRONNERIE, LA GACILLY
UNTIL NOVEMBER 3, 2024
FESTIVALPHOTO-LAGACILLY.COM
