La série Northern Lights est une invitation à pénétrer dans la nuit polaire et le monde traditionnel des Inuits à travers des photographies en poses longues et des light paintings réalisés au pochoir.
L’univers nocturne et mystique créé autour d’iconographie du peuple Inuit illumine la nuit polaire pour nous rappeler la fragilité culturelle d’un peuple et de son environnement. Une image transposable aux quatre coins du globe qui entre en résonance avec les enjeux écologiques et climatiques actuels.
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Northern Lights is an invitation to step into the polar night and the traditional world of Inuits through a series of long exposure photographs and stencil made light paintings
The nocturnal and mystical mood created around an old Inuit imagery is enlightening the polar night to make us think of the fragility of a culture and its environment. A matter we could be dealing with anywhere on earth, a matter that is resonating with current ecological and climate issues.
It could have been easy to fake all this with photoshop... but hey?! where would the fun be without spending days to draw and cut the stencils, freezing my butt in the polar night to fight the elements and the odds to finally get a proper light painting picture? No, it wouldn't have been no fun at all!
The series you've seen here is a part of a much bigger projet named ATKA. Thanks to ATKA, I've spent a great time giving workshops about photography, cyanotype (which I've never tried before to be honest) and light painting to kids from France and Greenland. I've been to Greenland, obviously... I spent two weeks on a boat stuck in ice two km away from a village of 29 souls. I shot 10 rolls of 120 film plus many 35mm during daylight and went light painting by -15° every nights. I met wonderful and beautiful people and it doesn't seem to be over yet.
I'm grateful I've been a part of this, I hope you enjoy what you're watching. If you do so, here's some behind the scenes shots. Because it worth almost as much as the final shots (to me... but I'm getting sentimental I guess) and it surely shows how exiting is the whole process !
Many thanks to Francois Bernard and ATKA team for providing me the opportunity to make that incredible journey and to step into light painting again! Thanks to Bapstiste Bernard for being one hell of a wintering captain, big up to Marie Ferec for assisting me every night even when we failed bringing a single picture back (and for the behind the scenes photos!). Learn more about the whole ATKA Projet by checking their website
Original photographs : Arnold Heim (ETH Library Zurich) and Lomen Bros (loc.gov)
