Jungles
Olivia Lavergne, Bérengère Cournut
JUNGLES gathers different series made by French photographer Olivia Lavergne for almost ten years. Its design follows a sequence inspired by the cinema, like a fluid montage of images that tells the story, unfolding slowly the narrative. The book’s large format, including full-bleed double pages, emphasizes the feeling of immersion in majestic and luxuriant landscapes. During the first chapter, the reader follows in the footsteps of a mysterious young woman, dressed as a city girl, who goes deep into the forest...
In the middle appears an amazing gallery of illuminated trees. Those images are accompanied with an unprecedented and magical short story written by novel writer Bérengère Cournut which resonates in deep echo with Olivia Lavergne's photographs. Then the third part of the book takes the reader in the wake of a Mentawaï family (called the flower men). The photographs' vibrant light gives an atmosphere suspended between reality and imagination, and conveys an intimate knowledge of the inhabited jungle like an immense garden.
The JUNGLES book, rooted in the contemporary question of the human relationship to nature, explores the signs of a new editorial genre that would be to photography what mythical stories and tales are to literature.
JUNGLES est préfacé par Xavier Canonne, directeur du Musée de la Photographie à Charleroi.
« Were it not for the strange glimmers illuminating and probing the depths of these jungles, they might appear to be empty of all human presence. The chaos of the forest, startled by the lens in what appears to be stillness, reveals all its diversity, the merest flower, the merest leaf, a spontaneous hierarchy that man attempts to dominate, a world whose troubling power preceded him and which he must subdue. »
Excerpt of Xavier Canonne's foreword
« It was him I saw first, as he was coming towards me. He was wearing a red cloth knotted on his head and around his hips. He was barefoot, carrying a machete. And yet he wasn't cutting anything, nor did he appear to be searching for anything in particular. He looked like he was musing about something other than himself - in the jungle. »
Excerpt of Bérengère Cournut's unpublished story
To know more, listen to Olivia Lavergne's interview about her photographic work and book :
Technical features
- Release date : 6 may 2021
- Photographs : Olivia Lavergne
- Text : Bérengère Cournut
- Foreword : Xavier Canonne
- English translation : Ruth Diver
- Graphic design : Nolwen Lauzanne
- Bilingual version: french, english
- Book format 25 x 33 cm / Weight : 950 gr
- 96 pages – 46 photographs
- Print run of 1000 copies
- Sewn, glued, square spine
- Leatherlike hard book cover
- Photographs printed on Symbol Tatami 150 gr (80 pages) and text printed on Fedrigoni Woodstock BEtulla 140 gr (16 pages) + endpapers on Sirio Cherry 150 gr
- ISBN: 9791095118169
- Prix public sans le tirage (TTC) : 39 euros
Tirage de tête limité d’Olivia Lavergne
Tirage limité au choix, numéroté, signé par la photographe
4 modèles (voir les visuels sur le produit)
20 exemplaires par modèle
Sur papier Hahnemühle Baryta 310 gr cadré dans un format 24 x 30 cm
Prix livre avec tirage : 180 euros
Exhibitions and events
- 3 June – 10 July 2021: photographic exhibition JUNGLES organized by the InSula Gallery (75006 Paris)
- June 18, 2021: book signing in les Jardins Passagers of the Parc de la Villette organized with the bookshop Librairie du Parc / Actes Sud (75019 Paris)
- 3 août 2021 : rencontre-dédicace autour du livre JUNGLES organisée par la péniche librairie-café L’eau et les rêves (75019 Paris)
- April 15 – May 29, 2022: solo exhibition JUNGLES as part of the Festival Photographie Mon Amour
- June 25, 2022: book signing organized in partnership with Aziart bookstore as part of the festival Lille 3000 UTOPIA, along with the exhibition 'The Living' at the Tri Postal
- mai 2023 : Olivia Lavergne comme artiste invitée par le Musée Nicéphore Niépce pour des ateliers autour du thème « Photographier le vivant, une expérience de notre relation au monde »Cliquez ici pour télécharger un extrait de la maquette.
Cliquez ici pour télécharger le dossier de presse.“This captivating awakened tale is written before our eyes in a tangle of images and words; if the images go to Olivia Lavergne, the text was born under the pen of Bérengère Cournut; both of them undoubtedly charm all those who devote themselves to contemplating the world at the border of reality. If by chance you wonder about the relationship between human and nature, this book overflowing with insight will provide a simple answer and filled with sweet magic; the one that opens your eyes. »
Compétence photo, juillet/août 2021, n°83
“My intention is to go towards something cinematic. I want to lose the reader a little, wondering if we are really in the middle of the forest or if it is scene from a film set. My work is about representation. There is the real and there is my reality, my subjectivity, which I affirm in my images. »
Entretien avec Olivia Lavergne, pour Réponses Photo, mai 2021, n°340
“Jungles seems to me a work that invites us to ponder over the duty we, rich countries, should have to defend these natural habitats, these peoples.Because the systematic, inescapable destruction that we exert on all the primary forests of the globe puts a definitive end to something paradoxically more powerful than us.Alice had to learn to let go of her prejudices once on the other side. Olivia Lavergne invites us, perhaps, to abandon ours to still continue and contemplate those wonderful places. ”Frédéric Martin in 5ruedu.fr« Nous avons besoin de renouveler notre rapport à la nature, notre lien à l’environnement, notre pacte avec le vivant.
Il faut nous inspirer des imaginaires des peuples, de leur façon d’habiter la Terre, de leurs pratiques symboliques, de leurs prières, et inventer de nouveaux rites, d’autres remerciements, des gestes de gratitude inédits. »Fabien Ribery sur L’intervalle