Fragile Beauty: My Photo Exhibition in Moissac

Until the end of September 2025, twenty-four of my underwater images will be exhibited in large format, outdoors, in Moissac (Tarn-et-Garonne), along the canal.

Fragile Beauty Festival

I owe this exhibition to the association Art d'Oc Pictures, based in Moissac, Occitanie. So it's in Tarn-et-Garonne, between Agen and Montauban, north of Toulouse... Yes, a long way from my native Brittany! 😅

This young association, founded in 2022, brings together nature photography enthusiasts from all walks of life. "The perception of beauty in the natural world plays an essential role in our motivation to preserve nature for its own sake, rather than seeing it simply as a resource to be exploited," they summarize on their website.

Every year since 2023, Art d'Oc Pictures has organized the Beauté fragile festival. On the menu: a long weekend in the city (this year, it was Friday 5th, Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th September) with a major exhibition bringing together some twenty photographers, as well as school events, meetings and workshops for the general public...

Before the summer, they contacted me and asked me to be the guest of honor for this 2025 edition on the theme of water. Twenty-four of my underwater photos will be on display in Moissac throughout September, in giant format and in the open air, on the towpath of the Canal Latéral à la Garonne.

I said yes 🤗

Dive without getting wet along the towpath

I spent three days at the show, full of talented photographers and, of course, to see my own exhibition. I have to admit, it was quite a thrill to rediscover my underwater images, in large format, in such a beautiful setting! I'd only ever seen them on a computer screen, or printed in more modest dimensions.

The result blew me away. The amazing team at Art Doc Pictures did an incredible job, from choosing the printer to installing the panels. Apparently, it wasn't easy to plant the poles and get the images plumb in this soil containing the crushed stones of an old railway ballast... 😱

Walkers, cyclists and passengers on boats passing through the lock can now dive in without getting wet through these twenty-four photos featuring marine life. Manta rays, sea slugs, sharks, turtles, clownfish, shoals of sardines, kelp (brown seaweed), cuttlefish, seahorses... Each photo is accompanied by a few lines giving information on the species photographed and the context in which it was taken.

I love meeting new people and talking about photography and diving, so it was a real pleasure to talk to other enthusiasts on site. In particular, I chatted with Sébastien Pierre, a wildlife photographer from the Landes region of France, who is also a regular underwater photographer. I was immediately drawn to his magnificent black and white series of pilot whales, astonishing marine mammals with rounded skulls.

"These photos were not taken at the end of the world, but near the French coast, in the Bay of Biscay", he likes to remind us. A seasonal encounter (April is the most favorable month), close to the Basque and Landes coasts, which has to be earned: you need favorable weather for the outing at sea, a bit of luck to cross the path of the "globis", favorable conditions for getting into the water (rather cool) with flippers-mask-tuba, a certain indifference to the cold (even with a wetsuit) and decent visibility to hope to make images...

A future adventure to try? 😉

Read more → Travelling to dive and diving locally

Underwater with a camera

During my visit to Moissac, I also had to do a bit of violence to myself and indulge in a new exercise, totally unprecedented for me: giving a talk.

As a reminder (read more about me here → But who's behind this blog?), I'm both a diver in the underwater "world of silence" and a print journalist. Radio, TV or "on-camera" videos for social networks aren't really my thing. In short, I'm not really used to speaking in front of an audience...

So I was a little apprehensive, but it went really well! 😅

My talk was simply entitled "Underwater with a camera". I took the time to recount my amazement at the beauty of this little-known nature, hidden beneath the surface. To retrace my journey and explain how the practice of underwater photography has enabled me, over the years, to better understand the fragility of marine ecosystems, threatened by overfishing, pollution, global warming... To the point of facing up to my own paradoxes. With the carbon footprint of my air travel, I'm far from exemplary.

Read more → Diving without travelling (without flying)

What's interesting about this exhibition and conference is that I'm not just talking to divers, or to an audience already familiar with the marine world, but to a much wider public. I hope, perhaps somewhat naively, to pique the curiosity of people who discover my images along the canal, and to raise their awareness of environmental issues, both on land and underwater.

I've learned that a teacher who attended my conference went on to organize an outing with her 6-year-old pupils.^e and 5^e to see the exhibition. I'm really happy to be able to pass on a bit of what I've seen and learned underwater to teenagers. And who knows? It might even spark off a few vocations...

Read more → "Divers are the first witnesses of the degradation of the underwater world"

Read more → Diving and protecting the ocean

I've come back from this weekend enriched by stimulating encounters, passionate exchanges and new friends.

All the more reason for me to finally get back to work on this blog, which I've left dormant for many, many months? I'm going to try to continue telling you about my underwater adventures, both recent and older, in the waters of Brittany and the Pacific Ocean. Before, perhaps, telling you about those to come... 😉