Photo festival puts nature on display

The Festival Photo Montier, 21 years old this year, attracts entries from all over the world, but is not solely a competition for photographers. As well as exhibitions of the photos, the festival runs a series of talks, conferences, and round-tables as well as events for children and concerts.

The festival, which attracts nearly 45,000 visitors a year, aims to encourage a healthy respect for our planet, as well as bring photographers together, to exchange experiences and views about subjects ranging from climate change to photographic techniques. The festival is attended by at least 4,000 schoolchildren, with the idea of fostering their interest in the natural world.

The exhibition includes around 2,000 photos, of animals and their habitats, as well as scenes of the natural world.

The scope in terms of subject is quite wide, but the organisers require the photos to be untouched; it’s a photography festival not a Photoshop display.

The festival will also host a mini-festival, NightScapades; images of the night sky and landscapes at night. The organisers hope this will be the first of many, and are making astronomy one of the major themes of this year’s festival, along with macrophotography.

“We are all stardust,” said astrophysics expert Hubert Reeves. “We are linked to our universe, each cell of our bodies is inescapably part of it.

“One of the questions explored at Montier, is whether or not we should protect the planet we live on before setting off to colonise more of them?”

Reeves’ son Benoît, who makes documentaries and specialises in studying astronomy and the environment is also a musician who conducts the choir at the Sorbonne. They will be performing on Sunday 19 at the Montier-en-Der Abbey.

Now it’s your turn!
Connexion readers are a creative bunch, and we’d love to see your untouched photos of French flora and fauna.
Send them to news@connexionfrance.com with your name, phone number and one sentence describing where and when the photo was taken, and we’ll publish a selection on our Facebook page. No prizes, just an enviable dose of kudos!