Multi-primed photographer on the international scene,Laurent Ballestais biologist, naturalist, researcher and explorer. For decades, through his exhibitions, works and conferences, Laurent Ballesta highlights the environmental issues that we face today and will be defended at the United Nations conference in Nice.
In recent years, Laurent Ballesta has endeavoured to illustrate not the beauty of nature or the horrors that we inflict on him, but the mysteries that hide behind aesthetic appearances.
Beyond astonishment or rekindling, these visions need to question us on the complex mechanisms of biodiversity. It is a matter of opening a small window, a brief moment, on what goes beyond us and that we do not understand. Approaching the unknown can create more respect than simply admire beautiful images. Today we need more knowledge than beauty. The image can bring this knowledge, and this is what Laurent Ballesta tries to do: make us feel the extent of our ignorance through his photographs and the mysteries they reveal.
The artist
Laurent Ballesta is a naturalist photographer, born in Montpellier in 1974. In 2000, he founded with Pierre Descamp the association L’OEil d’Andromeède, which aims to reconcile the oceanological study and artistic valuation of the marine environment, which in 2008 led to the creation of a society, Andromeda Océanologie. He directed 8 GOMBESSA expeditions that gave rise to productions for French and international television, especially for the ARTE and National Geographic channel. In 2016, during the Gombessa III expedition to the Adélie Land, he unveiled the marine fauna and deep lush gardens of Antarctica, never dived or illustrated before.
Photo: Ice ceiling, Dent Island, Terre Adelie © Laurent Ballesta