Serge Sibert
France • Born: 1953
A Chronicle of Rural Life 

The landscape of the Bugey region in eastern France is still largely made up of family farms. These adopt a human-scale approach to agriculture, work with natural cycles, and seek a fair balance between income and personal commitment.

Here, a generation of pioneering farmers began to innovate some thirty years ago, developing products with distinctive qualities, using organic or sustainable methods, and promoting shorter supply chains. This model helped keep the farms economically viable and allowed most of them to be passed down through the generations up to the present day.

However, French agriculture is currently undergoing a major upheaval. Government figures show that one million family farms have disappeared since the 1970s, including 100,000 between 2012 and 2020. By 2030, one in three farmers is expected to leave the profession. As a result, establishing new farms and passing on skills have become crucial issues, both in Bugey and beyond.

Individual lives lie behind these harsh statistics, and they form the heart of photographer Serge Sibert’s work. Known for his long-term photographic projects, his work is published regularly in leading magazines. Focusing on the men and women whose determination keeps these farms going, Sibert builds what appear to be family photo albums, documenting each distinct path over the years.

His images would not be qualified as nostalgic, yet they are full of quiet attachment to the people of this land, where he himself was born. Much like the children of Bugey today, Sibert spent his own childhood walking in this region’s rolling hills and driving cows between the family farm and the surrounding pastures.

Maintaining a strong network of small farms is a key issue in Bugey, as it is across France. This is not only an agricultural matter but a political and cultural priority, essential to the future of rural life and relevant to society as a whole. 

This exhibition has been produced with the support and expertise of CEWE. 

Agora.