20 years to plant hopes

Many people say: « After me, the world can end ». This is the most disgusting, insidious blasphemy that can pass our lips. It’s a statement of resignation, because it means cutting the ties that unite generations and create solidarity between us all.

George Sand, 1873

It was 2004, it was yesterday, when our village of La Gacilly opened its gardens and winding streets to photographers. That year, Franck Horvat, Arnaud Baumann, Sanna Kannisto and a handful of other talented pioneers came to offer audiences their unique vision of a nature that they sought to magnify, in an ode of respect for the fragility of our world.

It was 2004, it was yesterday, when climate change still felt far removed from the worries of our fellow citizens Nevertheless, unprecedented disasters should have warned us of what was to come: devastating floods in Bangladesh, unusual drought in Kenya affecting more than two million people, a cold spell in Peru with temperatures nearing -25°, and to top off these bad omens, a massive tsunami that struck the coasts of Sri Lanka, southern India and Thailand, causing the deaths of 250,000 people. The Amazon, threatened by rampaging deforestation, came to symbolise a green lung that had to be protected, but the words of President Chirac in 2002 didn’t seem to have the intended impact. As he said: « Our house is burning, and we’re looking away », And we would continue to look away. 

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