LEGACY EXHIBITION – Yann ARTHUS-BERTRAND "A life of photographer-director"

24 SEPTEMBER - 16 JANUARY 2021

On the sidelines of the "Nice Transition Days", an international festival of ecological innovations, the Musée de la Photographie Charles Nègre offers through 238 photographs, a look at all the work of Yann Arthus-Bertrand which constitutes an inventory of our planet and denounces the footprint of man and the damage to his environment.

This exhibition, singular in its scenography and in its format "outside the walls" in different places in Nice, will present the iconic photographs of The Earth seen from the sky on the Promenade du Paillon, the Series Bestiaux illustrating the relationship of man to the animal on the Place Pierre Gautier and a retrospective of the work of Yann Arthus-Bertrand at the Musée de la Photographie Charles Nègre, accompanied by the screening of his new film Legacy,presented in Cannes in July 2021.

Curator of the exhibition – Catherine Arthus-Bertrand

LEGACY – Yann ARTHUS-BERTRAND, a life as a photographer and director

At the Charles Nègre Museum of Photography

he museum presents a retrospective of the photographer's career over the past 50 years. A singular and committed journey from the very first photos taken in Kenya, to the series The French,portraits of trades now disappeared or threatened, through Horses,portraits of horses around the world from a hundred different breeds and types, or the great project The Earth seen from the sky.

At the end of the 80s, passing in front of the Salon de l'Agriculture, the press photographer that he was at the time, felt the desire to return to his first love: photographing animals. The famous annual event was an opportunity: he set up a photo studio at the Salon de l'Agriculture and chose an assistant, Jean-Philippe Peter, who taught him the mastery of artificial lights.
In the background, the sepia tarpaulin, the one he used for the first time in New Guinea and which can be found on other works. It is a neutral setting that now belongs to the history of Photography, since Nadar or Irving Penn already love it. In the shooting of his portraits of bovids, Yann Arthus-Bertrand ensures that the strength of his image lies in the representation of the relationship of Man to the Animal, and vice versa. It is the link that unites these two species that the photographer seeks, this link that interests and fascinates him.
It is also in contact with Man that Yann Arthus-Bertrand draws his energy, pleasure and creativity. It is in this exchange that he forges his militant commitment in favor of respect for others and the Earth. The adventure of the Salon de l'Agriculture spans a whole decade, and "Bestiaux" will be the subject of a cult book in 2006.

A life's work

Photograph and document all the countries of the world by flying over them by helicopter, embrace the planet with a glance to show its threatened beauty, make a historical and visual observation on the impact of Man on the Earth... these are the challenges of the project "The Earth seen from the sky" placed under the high patronage of UNESCO.

During his reports, Yann Arthus-Bertrand hears the environmental concerns of scientists, NGOs and residents. His need to understand is the first trigger of the adventure in 1991, the year of creation of his agency "Altitude". The second will be the Rio Conference in 1992. Aerial photography is extremely restrictive and expensive. It requires a strong team. Flight authorizations are difficult to obtain. The project is colossal and the photographer determined. His wife is by his side, they mortgage their house to finance it.
In 1994, he received support from UNESCO, then Fuji, Corbis, Air France... From virgin lands to megacities, more than 70 countries are photographed, more than 14,300 places are listed, thousands of films used, hundreds of thousands of photos captioned and, on the eve of the year 2000, an inventory of the planet comes out in the form of a book, "La Terre vue du Ciel", published by La Martinière. 424 superbly printed pages, 190 spectacular images accompanied by precise texts. Never seen before! The book is a bestseller, selling more than 3.5 million copies in ten years. "Earth from the Sky" is the best-selling photo book in history.

Strengthened by this success, Yann Arthus-Bertrand deploys his a