PRESS KIT 15TH EDITION QUESTION TIME FOR EARTH 2 JUNE TO 30 SEPTEMBER 2018 INTRO A HYMN TO THE EARTH THE POETRY OF NATURE THE LAND OF MEN AN EXPLOITED PLANET PLUS... ImaGE SANS FRONTIÈRE EMERGING PHOTOGRAPHY LE MORBIHAN SCHOOL PHOTO FESTIVAL 4 INTRODUCTION JACQUES ROCHER Festival founder & Mayor of La Gacilly This year marks La Gacilly Photo Festival’s 15W birthday. Over this time, it has won a significant place in the world of photography, both in France and internationally. Its founding principle is as relevant as ever: to express, through a camera lens, the major environmental and social issues which arise Over 15 years, La Gacilly has welcomed 3.3 million people, proving – if proof were needed – that culture attracts visitors to rural regions. • It goes without saying that we owe this success to the talents of more than 300 international photographers whom we have exhibited over a decade and a half. • We also owe a debt of gratitude to our public sector partners the French Ministry of Culture, Brittany Regional Council, Le Morbihan Departmental Council, the Brocéliande Western Local Authorities Partnership, and La Gacilly Local Authority. • We are also grateful to private sector partners who have offered us financial and technical support. • Finally, we owe no less of our success to the team working at the Festival and at La Gacilly Local Authority. Our 15th Festival also marks a step forward in our international deve- lopment as we inaugurate our first ever La Gacilly-Baden Photo Fes- tival in the town of Baden, Austria. We are proud to be proving that culture helps to foster relationships and kinship between different communities. 5 INTRODUCTION AUGUSTE COUDray Président du Festival A SINGULAR VISION OF OUR Whether it comes in the form of constructions, culture or nature, our heritage is only as important as the value we place on it and the uses we make of it. It is not just about exhibiting significant objects and visiting high-quality places, but the meaning and symbolism these objects and places embody. In our modern world, experts are no longer the only ones to decide what heritage is – society itself also makes this judge- ment. Heritage now encompasses alternative places and events that are meaningful to everybody, such as ex-industrial areas, redesigned urban spaces, festivals and districts with a rich seam of street art. La Gacilly Photo Festival draws its strength from its relationship with the public. It perfectly illustrates how our definition of heritage has broadened, leading to greater recognition for new heritage areas. While the Festival has become a renowned tourist destination, nationally and internationally, for all kinds of different people visiting Brittany, it remains an event that those of us living in Western France feel compelled to revisit year after year. For 15 years, La Gacilly Photo Festival has invited local residents and tourists to enjoy a truly enriching experience with family or friends, in a setting imbued with a sense of celebration, authenticity and meaning. Last year, more than 320,000 people of all ages visited the event. Because it tackles key social issues through art and aesthetics, La Gacilly Photo Festival is resolutely in step with our times. This year, it is boldly bringing about “Question Time for Earth” as part of a thorough interrogation of the world we live in. We invite visitors to use their mind and their senses to explore our Earth, to listen to it whisper its endlessly layered song and to feel its pulsing vibration. Let’s dare to look further, to gaze at both the infinitely huge and the infinitesimally small, crossing time and space as we do so. Let’s work to uncover the reality that links countless interactions which occur while our shared human existence endlessly renews and extends itself, interactions which shape and change our daily lives and light our path Welcome to La Gacilly. I hope that you enjoy your time at our Festival. 6 INTRODUCTION CYRIL DROUHET Exhibition Curator FLORENCE DROUHET Festival Artistic Director 15 YEARS HAVE PASSED… BUT THE NEED TO ACT HAS NOT “What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?” Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) Humankind has long believed that the Earth we live on is eternal and its resources unending. We explored it, mined it, transformed it and, finally, exhausted it. 15 years ago, La Gacilly Photo Festival was created to be a space where images gave us an insight into our planet’s extremely fragile beauty – a beauty which has been perverted by frenetic industrialisation, uprooted by urbanisation and impoverished through over-work of the earth. Either in a spirit of revolt or with a gentler approach, the photographers have set out to magnify, document, cap- ture or simply display the vital connection between humankind and nature. The greatest names in contemporary photography have supported us throughout the years. They are, in their own way, custodians and protectors of our Earth. Without their shots, their drive to let others see what they see, their sensibilities and their implacable vision of the society emerging around us, we would not be able to stand in wonder before wild animals, the last unviolated ancient forests or the miracle of life itself. Neither would we know of the tragedies unfolding, of inhuman cities which crush in ever more inhabitants, of the earthworks which might destroy an entire ecosystem or of the pollution which is endangering our shared heritage. Since the Festival first started in 2004, it has exhibited more than 300 artists and given visitors the chance to see more than 7000 photographs, opening up thousands of windows onto our world. In our open-air galleries and passageways and our gardens designed so that visitors can wander in amongst the art, we have aimed to share with an ever-growing audience of all ages all the brutality of our times – but also images of hope or, quite simply, beauty. We can do this because the renowned photojournalists and artists we present each year all share our wild passion for our Earth as they travel the world looking for shots that reveal an undeniable truth. Many of them have even become friends of the festival, such as Brent Stirton, Pascal Maitre, Michael Nichols, Pierre de Vallom- 7 INTRODUCTION breuse, Sophie Zénon, and Nick Brandt. We extend our sincerest thanks to them for sharing their talent so loyally with us. Our hope for the 15th anniversary Festival was that it would celebrate our rein- vigorated Earth, with humankind having finally devoted all its attention to it out of concern for its future. Alas, as time has ticked on ever faster, the first warning signs have flared up and nation states have endlessly gathered to find solutions for our ailing planet, we are getting inexorably closer to the brink and at an increasing pace, despite us all being aware of how urgent action is if we are to avoid our ruination. Throughout our history, we have looked at nature without really seeing it. We have never sought to love it, but to tame it. • Is there still time to save our burning home? In 1992, 1700 researchers called on us to act against environmental destruc- tion. They feared that “humanity was pushing Earth’s ecosystems beyond their capacities to support the web of life”. Yet things have only worsened, and faced with the gravity of the situation, more than 15,000 scientists put their name to an unprecedented warning 25 years later in November 2017. In it, they stated that, over a quarter of a century, forests have inexorably disappeared, with 1.2 billion km2 of space having been swallowed up, largely by agriculture; numbers of mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds and fish have fallen by a third; and the use of greenhouse gases has soared – and global temperatures with it. Over the same period, areas of the ocean covered by “dead zones”, where marine life has been smothered by farming waste carried in by rivers and where oxygen has all but disappeared, have expanded by 75%. This damage is being done in lockstep with increases in population growth. Since the first call to action was issued, the number of people on the planet has increased by a third. As science sees it, our only hope of salvation is if we undergo both a collective and personal change of mind-set. If we do not, we will run out of time. To reverse the dynamics currently underway, scientists have urgently recommended that we halt population growth by making family planning more widely available; create more nature reserves; strengthen laws against poaching; and offer wide-scale support for renewable energies and other green technology. Take the time to observe, contemplate and respect the natural world which gives us our life force. Refuse to turn away from reality by taking responsibility for the irreversible footprint we leave behind. Declare any sign of progress a source of hope. These are the objectives La Gacilly Photo Festival has always strived for. For the 2018 Festival which marks our 15th birthday, we wanted to gather together the finest examples of 8 INTRODUCTION photographic style, documentarian, photo-journalistic or artistic, so long as they demonstrated an awareness of our world while also expressing its enchanting qualities or beauty. • Wonderment? Astronaut Thomas Pesquet inspired millions of French people during his voyage aboard the European Space Station. There, he revealed himself to be an incom- parable photographer and defender of the environment. He speaks eloquently of his cause, telling us “Earth is a spaceship with a crew of 7 billion people, all of whom are seeking to survive.