Storytelling through images

My mission is to expose the fragility and conflict between humans and nature and create awareness and knowledge through images and visual storytelling about scientific projects, technology, climate change and declining biodiversity, for a wider audience.

I have sailed the five oceans and been part of several international scientific teams. For more than a decade, I have witnessed on the front lines of climate change and documented its effects on the most unique and fragile ecosystems and indigenous peoples.

Through international lectures, conferences and photo exhibitions (e.g. European institutions such as the Environment Agency and European Commission, United Nations climate conferences, etc.), I aim to inspire audiences and share my work with leaders, youth, academics, NGOs, business people and game-changers, with the goal of raising awareness.

In 2023, my photographic work was exhibited for eight months in the Federal Parliament of Belgium, where I organised a debate in the Chamber of Representatives. I gave a lecture on my work to the Belgian Senate. I also exhibited at three Belgian embassies (Denmark, Switzerland and Argentina) and collaborated with several institutions, universities and governments to bridge science, policy and industry through the power of images.

In January 2024, I was officially appointed by my government to provide scientific communications (outreach and dissemination) for the Belgian research vessel RV Belgica. 

Click on each project’s image below to explore each project individually.

PACIFIC PROJECT (coming soon)

The ongoing Pacific Ocean Project focuses on climate change and global warming, and how vulnerable islands adapt to this crucial problem. I interviewed prime ministers, the president of Kiribati and Marshall Islands, corporations, Non-Governmental Organizations, Universities and private citizens. 

I have documented New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Solomon islands, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Palau, Nauru, Tonga, Samoa, French Polynesia, Lord Howe Island, Easter Island, Fiji, Hawaii, Robinson Crusoe Island, Federal States of Micronesia, Republic of the Marshall Islands.

As a Climate Pact Ambassador of the European Union, it is my pledge to raise awareness, to place the Pacific region on the agenda because this region is often forgotten. The region is impacted by the consequences of global warming like no other (Pacific Islanders contribute less than 0,03% to global Warming). Global Warming forces islanders to build seawalls to protect themselves against overwash and floods.

WHITEOUT

WHITEOUT is an art project comprising a collection of 28 photographs focussing on the polar regions, as well as 26 poems, songs and insights written by the indigenous Peoples of the Arctic, in particular the Sámi and Inuit. The art book consists of a maximum printing of 250 copies, each individually numbered and signed by the poet and the photographer. All photos are for sale.

WHITEOUT is a tribute to the polar regions of our planet, in which the serenity, silence and splendour of this unique but endangered region are expressed. This project provides a unique look into the world of these remarkable semi-nomadic peoples.

In the WHITEOUT-series, one can experience a poetic silence in every image, a filled emptiness of essence and experience. With this project, I searched for the boundaries of the visible.

TERRES AUSTRALES ET ANTARCTIQUES FRANCAISES

In 2019, I joined the French government’s scientific vessel Marion Dufresne, which supplies the scientists and researchers stationed on the French Southern and Antarctic Lands (Terres Australes et Antarctiques Françaises, or ‘TAAF’), with food, equipment and all of life’s necessities.

Spending three weeks on a turbulent ocean with scientists allowed me to become integrated in the working schedule of the mission. It was a true privilege to be able to witness the beauty of these unique, fragile ecosystems, which are among the most difficult in the world to reach.

The French Southern Lands and Seas, with their unique biodiversity and threatened species, host some of the world’s largest concentrations and diversity of birds and marine mammals.

With my camera as my witness, I capture and preserve a moment in time of these vast beautiful territories. I seek to give these remote islands and seas a semblance of permanence, and to understand the threat of climate change and other man-made impacts on their environment.

WAVES

Having navigated the five oceans in pursuit of my passion to document their beauty, I decided to dedicate my first hardcover book to the essence of life itself: water.

WAVES is a project consisting of 24 art photos as well as a high quality limited edition book. This art book is a symbiosis between photography and poetry and consists of a maximum printing of 250 copies, each individually numbered and signed by the poet and the photographer. All photos are for sale.

ARCTIC

For centuries the poles symbolized a pure, untouched world. A world hostile to humans, with temperatures well below zero. Unknown, vast, inhospitable areas which killed many polar explorers and researchers.

Today, the poles are a symbol of global warming. Despite their immense surface, their vulnerability is at the forefront of the crisis. Any increase in temperature by a fraction of a degree has an enormous impact on the ice masses, glaciers and the animals that inhabit these areas.

SVALBARD GLOBAL SEED VAULT

In a barren, cold and secluded spot, only 1,000 km (620 miles) from the North Pole, a bunker was drilled deep into the rocks near Longyearbyen by the Norwegian government in Spitsbergen in 2008: a 130 meter long tunnel that opens onto three spacious freezers with a temperature of -18° C (0.4°F).

Here, the seeds of all crops in the world are collected to protect them against all types of disasters, to prevent species from extinction. A safety vault for the protection of the biodiversity of our food crops.

Currently 1,081,026 different plant seeds are stored. The bunker has a total capacity to safeguard 4.5 million varieties. The biggest advantage of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault is its unique location, far from potential disaster such as earthquakes and wars, protected deep in the permafrost.
After eight months of networking, I was finally permitted to enter the Vault.