Terra non obscura.
2025.
Five times already. And yet, Iceland never truly lets itself be grasped. It's an obsession, an intact magnetic force, a mirror where human smallness is measured against a geological history written over millions of years. This photographic series was born from a seven-day immersion across the 120 kilometers of the Laugavegur trail, deep within the Icelandic Highlands, right at the moment when the summer solstice turns night into continuous day. Terra Non Obscura – The Non-Obscure Earth – is a quest for the light that never fades, and the contrast it reveals on a raw, violent telluric matter. Trekking over untouched ground, day and night, film photography (analog) proved to be the most fitting medium. The fragility of the pinhole camera or the singular flaws of the 35mm film (double exposure, light leaks, amplified grain) resonate with the ephemeral nature of our own passage. Here, imperfection is a mark of truth, the footprint of the dialogue between chance and my eye. The resulting images are enigmatic. They sometimes appear literally attacked by fire, lava, or radiation, capturing the tension between the spectacular beauty and the telluric violence that shapes this eternal landscape. These fragments of the Highlands remind us of our fragility while testifying to the unbearable presence of the world.
Each piece in the Terra Non Obscura series is unique and irreplaceable.
These analog prints carry within them the unpredictable: a fleeting moment, a chemical reaction impossible to repeat.
Every image exists as one single, unique example (80 x 53 cm).
This radical choice is supported by the highest standard of production:
Printing on rare Japanese art paper, executed by Hervé Pain (Fotodart), a renowned Parisian printer.
Framing of the utmost quality, sober and solid, in walnut wood, crafted by Patrick (Image Collée), a superb Parisian framer.
These works are non-reproducible; they are singular presences that embody, through their material and their history, the magnetic energy and the uninterrupted light of Iceland.
