Chasing Whales

Being passionate about marine ecosystems and cold landscapes, I’ve been photographing the Arctic and Northern Europe for years now. Every time I visit these places and experience their peculiar climate, the cetaceans are there, one way or another.

My ecology and zooarchaeology training led me to document their presence, our relationship to them, and the hunting practices that ensued from them.
That’s why I decided to bring together the chase of cetaceans and their artefacts and my visual identity in a hybrid movie, somewhere between documentary and poetry.

I developed the images myself, in an artisanal fashion. Using an analogue camera (with Kodak and Lomography films) and experimenting with the chemicals convey a dreamy aspect to the story and the landscapes I filmed. The distortions on the cellulose also represent the fragility of our ecosystems and the urgent need to put in place better conservation programs for them and the cetaceans.

Elisa Monteil’s rich voice-over and sound design put the finishing touch to the images and allow you to immerse yourself fully in the voyage Chasing Whales is offering, between the amazement of discoveries and anxiety towards the future.