VIVA LATINA !

Borderline,
Frontiers of Peace

For the last ten years or so, Valerio Vincenzo has travelled the European borders, the 20,000 kilometres of frontiers that have faded away under the effects of freedom of movement. These borders come in many forms, materialised by a road, an electric fence, a river, a painted line on the tarmac…

The last black faces of Poland

The mining industry was long considered a source of national pride in Poland. It is now, however, in decline in this Eastern European country. In an age when capitalism is celebrated and the need to develop clean energies is becoming urgent, there are fewer and fewer of these miners, yet they are still…

The Colours of the Empire

Everything appears so modern and contemporary. Yet Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky’s
photographs were taken between 1905 and 1915. He was a chemist and member of
the Russian Imperial Technical Institute where, with his tutor Adolf Miethe, he
developed a technique to separate colours leading to…

In the East, the forests stand defiant


Deforestation knows no borders. It is rampant everywhere, even in Europe.

In Poland, which is home to the largest and oldest primary forest in Europe, but also in Romania, which harbours two thirds of the continent’s remaining primary forests (excluding Russia). In…

Portugal rising from the ashes

In Portugal, huge swathes of agricultural land were abandoned by owners, making way for vast forest areas. As the country’s paper industry is well-established and hugely profitable, intensive monoculture of maritime pine and eucalyptus trees developed rapidly. Although crucial to papermaking,…

Saint Petersburg, the City of Shadows

“Alexey Titarenko is not interested in action or exterior events, but in the melody of an inner state. He heard it inside himself while walking in the district of Kolomna, where the heroes of Dostoevsky lived and suffered. Passers-by who stroll along the quays of the Griboiedov canal, the…

Ukraine and Kazakhstan: the sense of a nation

This is the story of two countries that freed themselves from the shackles of the Soviet Empire to rediscover the essence of their roots. After the Berlin Wall came down, some countries remained under Russian hegemony while others, like Ukraine and Kazakhstan, sought to free themselves…

The Morbihan sentries

There’s one thing we tend to forget: humans might be responsible for the damage done to our environment, but they are also the ones standing up to defend it. All over the world, at a time of urgency when there has never been greater need, men and women are taking action to halt the damage being done to our…

Invasion ‘68: Prague

In 1968, Josef Koudelka was 30 years old. He had just spent six years photographing gypsies and the world of theatre, but his first experience in covering current affairs came with the Prague Spring. In the night of 21st August, the tanks of the Warsaw Pact entered the Czech capital. Having returned from Romania…

Togo: the forest gardeners

According to Togolese folklore, “The tree heals, the tree feeds, the tree regenerates and the tree welcomes the spirit of the deceased.” At first glance, visitors may think that, over time, harmony has been forged between the people of this small West African country and its environment. The Plateaux…

The revolutionary eye of constructivism

Constructivism is present in philosophy and the social sciences, as well as in the realm of art where, as a movement,
it reflects on the organisation of dimensions and expressions of volume using materials of the industrial era.
It emerged in early 20 th  century Russia, under…

The man who walked underwater

The world’s final frontiers are not above us in the sky, but beneath us underwater. The oceans cover 70% of our planet and 95% of the Earth’s biosphere, and are the only place left on Earth for us to explore. The holder of numerous world freediving records and double world champion, Guillaume Néry has…

The Arctic: a New Frontier
A joint polar expedition
© Kadir van Lohuizen / NOOR for Fondation Carmignac

The Arctic is seen as something of a ‘warning system’ for climate change because the phenomenon is gathering pace at an unprecedented rate in this part of the world. The global repercussions are felt in rising sea…

Urban landscapes

Estonian Alexander Gronsky describes himself as a landscape photographer, but never fails to tell a story in his images. His are stories of silent, isolated lives.

Playing with perspectives, composition and a masterful use of light, his work is clearly reminiscent of traditional Russian painting. Take…

Restricted Areas

Higher, stronger, better… People are always tempted to acquire more than they already have, to accomplish more than they’ve already done. Restricted Areas is an artistic photographic project that seeks to illustrate the human urge to attain some kind of Utopia, to strive for perfection through technological progress…

Life in the frozen extremes

In Norilsk, Russia, temperatures plummet to -40°C in December and there are 130 days of snowstorms per year. In Vyksa, in the Nizhny Novgorod oblast, swimming club members take to the icy waters all year round to strengthen their immune systems. At the most northerly point of the legendary North-East…

The tourism of climate change

The Dolomites ski resort in Italy, the River Jordan, the Dead Sea and Greenland all have something in common: they are destinations for the phenomenon baptised ‘climate tourism’ by Italian photographer Marco Zorzanello. Although snow on the Italian mountains now only forms the narrowest of layers, the…

The Slavic mindset

Maximishin was born in Kerch, Crimea. This peninsula on the edge of the Black Sea is home to the Russian military fleet and, at the time, belonged to the Republic of Ukraine. Until 2014, when it became part of Russia. But origins matter little to Maximishin. He is, first and foremost, a Slav. Early on, he left his…

Harmonies

“Those who dream by day are cognisant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.” Photographer Maia Flore, a member of the VU agency, quotes Edgar Allan Poe as she presents her series Sleep Elevations. Her images are so full of poetry and strange reverie that she could just as well have quoted Lewis Caroll…