LES PARTICULES
Le conte humaine d’une eau qui meurt
Manon Lanjouère
Collection CIVIS MARITIMUS
LES PARTICULES
MANON LANJOUÈRE
1st publication in the new CIVIS MARITIMUS collection
Introduction: Michel Poivert
Format: 20×28
French / English
ISBN : 979-10-92727-58-6
This book is supported by the Fonds de dotation agnès b.
The Civis Maritimus collection is supported by the Conseil Régional d’île de France.
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COLLECTION CIVIS MARITIMUS
Les Particules, a human tale of dying water, a poetic and photographic manifesto for ocean preservation.
The first publication in the new CIVIS MARITIMUS collection, which will release a volume each year showcasing the work of a photographer who offers a unique perspective on the relationship between humans and the marine world.
Through a poetic and artistic approach, this book invites readers to reflect deeply on ocean pollution. Each image, with its visual beauty, invites contemplation, but also, through its visual impact, calls for action. It is a book that demonstrates the power of artistic creation to transform society.
In Particles, a dying tale of water, artist Manon Lanjouère addresses the issue of plastic pollution in water and its devastating consequences for the planet, human health, and the lives of all living beings.
Through previously unpublished photographs and personal accounts, Manon Lanjouère highlights the ubiquity of invisible plastic particles in our bodies and our environment, underscoring the need to act quickly and take concrete steps to combat this pollution.
Manon Lanjouère forges spectral images that resemble a new nosology. Her classification of the mutations that transform underwater life forms into a repertoire of refuse borrows notably from the photographic iconography of plants in the early nineteenth century.
Préface – Extrait
Michel Poivert, photography historian and curator
Inspired by Anna Atkins’ British Algae herbarium, or Ernst Haeckel’s sublime plates on Nature’s Artistic Forms, Manon Lanjouère uses various photographic processes such as cyanotype to represent this underwater world. She uses the waste products themselves – cotton buds, ballpoint pens, hairbrushes… and other plastic objects found on beaches – to reproduce the shapes of endangered species. Ballpoint pens become thalassionema nitzschiode and a simple hair elastic, guinardia striata.
CONVERSATION
Particles: Where Art and Science Meet in the Face of an Invisible Threat
Interview animated by Andreina de Bei (editor-in-chief and photo editor at Sciences et Avenir-La Recherche)
Between Manon Lanjouère (visual artist) and Ika Paul-Pont, a researcher in marine ecotoxicology at LEMAR and a specialist in the effects of micro- and nanoplastics on coastal ecosystems.
Excerpt from the interview
ADB Was it the fragility and beauty of these creatures, Manon, that inspired and motivated you?
ML Of course, and what struck me even more was realizing that they play a fundamental role in the balance of ecosystems, since phytoplankton—microalgae and cyanobacteria—perform photosynthesis, thereby absorbing CO₂ and releasing oxygen. The thought that this vital function for the planet, carried out by creatures of such marvelous and intriguing appearance, was severely compromised by plastic pollution, ignited my imagination and fueled the creative process that led to the Les Particules project.
IPP The vulnerability you mention is well established. Our research has demonstrated the impact of microplastics and nanoplastics on phytoplankton: by interacting with these living organisms, the pollutants alter their distribution in the water column and their buoyancy; they adhere to them, forming aggregates that are toxic to the entire food chain; and worse, they reduce their ability to perform photosynthesis by nearly 45%. It is invisible, and tragically harmful.
ADB Does your artistic process resemble a scientific research approach?
ML Undoubtedly research-based. I have neither the training nor the pretensions of a scientist, but I find science deeply inspiring; it constantly nourishes me. All my projects are guided by a protocol, based on which I construct an image, much like one would in laboratory experiments. Then, I repeat the process endlessly, and through this iteration, I push the form to its limits. To me, laboratories are playgrounds!
Includes the book along with a signed print, limited to 7 copies
aBOUT MANON LANJOUÈRE
Manon Lanjouère is an artist based in Saint-Malo. After studying art history at the Sorbonne, she decided to devote herself entirely to photography and enrolled at the École des Gobelins in 2014, graduating in 2017 as one of the top students in her class. Her ties to the theater influence her photographic practice, which is marked by staging and set design. Manon Lanjouère’s work primarily addresses environmental issues and human relationships. Immersed in intimate spaces—whether physical or metaphysical—at the intersection of science and poetry, her multidisciplinary work challenges our imagination.
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In 2022, Manon Lanjouère won the Photography & Science Award and served as artist-in-residence aboard the schooner Tara.
She is the 2023 recipient of the prestigious Contemporary Talent Award from the François Schneider Foundation.
This project is on display at the Académie du Climat in Paris from September 14 to October 15, 2023, as part of the Photo Climat Biennial.
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LES PARTICULES – LIMITED EDITIONS
Le livre Les Particules, conte humain d’une eau qui meurt, invite, par une approche poétique et artistique, à une réflexion profonde sur la pollution des océans. Chaque image, par sa beauté plastique, invite à la contemplation mais aussi, par sa force visuelle, à l’action. Un livre qui témoigne de la puissance de la création artistique dans sa capacité à transformer la société.
