For Chloé Milos Azzopardi, shooting this series for The Overview book was also an opportunity to revisit some of her favorite childhood memories in Cantal, France. This past summer, the visual artist returned to the region to document the volcanoes, mountains, forests, and organisms that became her world during visits with her great-grandparents.
Azzopardi’s clearest memories of Cantal’s biodiversity have been stored in her mind as distinct images since adolescence, now materialized with a swift click of her camera. One of those images began at a waterfall near her great-grandparents’ home. Azzopardi remembers seeing all types of animals: cows drinking from the river, frogs, dragonflies; but, one day during a swim, she noticed something she never knew was possible—a snake gliding across the surface of the water.
“I had the sensation of witnessing a magical, almost unreal act.”
In the years since, she says she’d scanned the reeds and surfaces of the Cantal lakes, hoping to observe a moment like this again, but it didn’t happen until shooting this series.
“I had to wait a long time before one of the grass snakes went further out to the water, agreeing to uncover itself completely, leaving the rocks and mud behind to take the photo that most echoed the feeling I’d had as a child.”
She also spent a month searching for a praying mantis, an insect whose otherworldly features have been imprinted in her mind since she first encountered one at six years old. She says she had never felt the gaze of an insect with such intensity before. Now, she believes the first encounters we have with other living creatures influence us for the rest of our lives.
“I’ve kept this sensation of being seen and of being able to look into the eyes of a being absolutely different from myself. At that moment, it was as if the world had become a little bigger.”
Azzopardi was intent on highlighting the individuality and diversity of each living being and ecosystem she encountered, while still emphasizing our interconnectedness. She captures the independence of a lone caterpillar on a rock, the groundedness of the distant mountains, and the patience of a flowering agave plant. A pair of damselflies resting on the hand of her younger brother is a nod to the connections between organisms of the same species and different ones.
The slow rediscovery of these familiar ecosystems and the process of adapting to their different temporalities felt natural for Azzopardi. She felt it was important to look for encounters with the evolved biodiversity of the region while remembering it is not possible to force them—simply hoping that they will happen is enough. “[We must] trust in chance, and that a connection will be possible between other living beings and ourselves.”
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Chloé Milos Azzopardi: Exploring the Biodiversity of Cantal
