Francis Latreille
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Selected Works
Cathédrales éphémères
I was born in Gien, on the banks of the Loire, during one of the coldest winters of the previous century, in 1956, I saw the flow of the royal river slow and freeze.
Under the hundred-year-old arches of the old stone bridge, in an anarchic chaos, “ice water lilies” clashed, metamorphosing into a frozen field!
It was my first ice floe!
A few growlers, my first mini-icebergs, emerged from this pack ice!
I did not know yet what this image would mean for my future!
In the Arctic and Antarctic, a few decades later, I would discover and accompany these ephemeral cathedrals!
majestic
dangerous
luminous
monstrous
sumptuous
deceptive
These superlatives can only evoke a tiny part of what it feels like to be on first-name terms with them!
These “cathedrals” of ice come to us from millennia-old glaciers, reigning supreme over the austral and boreal oceans.
These “cathedrals” are bewitching and hallucinating sculptures feared by sailors!
It was from the Sermeq Kujalleq glacier in Greenland that a million-ton iceberg drifted, giving rise to one of the greatest maritime tragedies of all, the sinking of the Titanic, which has fueled our literature, cinema and news for over a century!
At the mercy of the currents, these gigantic frozen vessels float, drift and die, after a long agony, in the waters of warmer latitudes.
A huge tabular iceberg, A23a, the size of Corsica, has broken away from the Wedell Sea ice shelf in Antarctica, and is causing concern in the scientific community.
So close to us, this world of ice regulates our climate, and these “ephemeral cathedrals” are multiplying, a warning signal for our societies mired in our daily lives.
The Last Arctic People (1990-2018)
Far above the Arctic Circle on the Taymyr Peninsula in north central Siberia live the Dolgan people. Only 250 of these nomadic herdsmen remain in this isolated area where snow covers the ground ten months of every year and the harsh winter temperatures can drop below -76°F.
French photographer Francis Latreille spent several seasons with the last of these Asiatic nomads sharing the seasonal moves of their immense herds of reindeers. He also endured the terrible isolation of the lonf Polar nights and the struggles of their day-to-day existence. « Initially, I thought human beings could not subsist in such temperatures, live for three months in complete darkness with no electricity, with only a small woodstove to cook and heat their dwellings. It would be so simple to choose a more comfortable way of life, to forget customs, and to move to town as so many others have done. I was intrigued. What human feelings can survive when you spend all your time and energy on survival? »
Remarkably, what he discovered was an astonishingly happy and serene community and tells his photographs tell their story.
Latreille set up his studio near the Arctic Ocean in the village of Novorybnoyé. As a backdrop, a simple canvas brought from France was hung from the balcony of the house or put up on ice blocks.
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Biography
Biography
France , 1948 -
French photographer and painter Francis Latreillle was born on January 8, 1948 along the banks of the Loire River in the village of Poilly les Gien. At the young age of 19, he made the decision to leave the peaceful Loire Valley. He had a cause – the Six-Days War in Israel – which he wanted to cover. This decision would change the course of his life. He went on to participate in the creation of Best magazine and was on staff for several years at the French daily France-Soir. Another turning point came in 1995 when he accompanied activist/explorer Jean Louis Etienne’s expeditions to the North Pole, Antarctica, Patagonia, Spitzberg, Greenland and Siberia. He has become passionate about those regions most threatened by global warming. In 1997 he was awarded a Award. Since 1998 he has been participating in the Mammuthus Siberian expedition retrieving and preserving a 20,000 year-old mammoth found frozen in the tundra by "mammoth hunter" Bernard Buigues. He was also a member of the Tara expedition in the Arctic. Francis Latreille publishes his reports and photographs in National Geographic, Life, Time, Newsweek, Geo, Paris Match, and Figaro Magazine.
Awards:
World Press Photo 1997
Scoop International Festival, Angers, France, 2000
Chevalier de l'Ordre du Mérite, France, 2006
Member of the Société des explorateurs français, 2024
Bibliography:
2000 Mammouth, Editions Robert Laffont
2002 Mission Banquise. Editions du Seuil / 7° Continent
2003 Dolgans les derniers nomades des glaces. Editions Hors collections
2005 Tara, un voilier pour la planète. Editions Guérin
2006 Paradis blanc. La Martinière
2006 Die Arktis. Knesebeck
2006 Le Grand Nord raconté aux enfants. La Martinière jeunesse
2006 Wonders of the North Pole. Abrams
2006 White Paradise. Abrams
2007 The Arctic. Abrams
2008 Le pole Sud raconté aux enfants. La Martinière jeunesse
2008 Tara, 500 jours au gré de la dérive arctique. Gallimard
2010 L’Hermione une frégate pour la liberté. Gallimard
2011 : A la découverte des pôles. La Martinière jeunesse
2012 Les Pôles. La Martiniere
2013 Expédition Mammuthus. La Martinière
2015 : Hermione, dans le sillage de Lafayette. Gallimard
2016 : La belle aventure de l’Hermione. Gallimard
2018 : Hermione, voyage en Méditerranée. Gallimard
2019 : Les derniers peuples des glaces. Gallimard
2019 : Die letzten Nomaden der Arktis. Knesebeck
Main Exhibitions:
Chasseurs de Mammouths, Chateau-musée de Gien, 2024
Festival de la Photo animalière de Montier, 2022
Le dernier peuple des glaces, Galerie XII, Paris, 2019
Yangon photo Festival, Yangon, 2019
The Dolgans, Gallery-Beaugeste, Shanghai, 2017
Tara, Maison Agnès B, Paris, 2013-2014
Festival de la Photo animalière de Montier, 2014
La Gacillly, 2011
Etonnants voyageurs, Saint-Malo, 2009
Espace Photographique Arthur Batut, 2007
Palais de la Découverte, Paris, 2000
The Conquest of the Poles: 150 years of Photography in the Arctic and Antarctic. Hôtel de Sully, Paris, 1997 -
Exhibitions