Elephant – Laurent Baheux

Description

The book: tribute and plea for the survival of the African elephant

In Kenya, Namibia, South Africa, Botswana and Tanzania, he crossed paths with these mammals that so majestically embody the wild world, its beauty and its mysteries. This book offers an incomparable spectacle, that of an intimate face-to-face with the animal, here treated as a subject in its own right, on an equal footing with man. It encourages us to take the time to contemplate it, to better question our relationship to the wild world and our place in it.
If the photographer has long since chosen black and white, it is to better play with the incomparable light of Africa, its singular purity that gives the feeling of being in direct contact with the material, without filter.

Laurent Baheux’s approach is not that of a naturalist or ethology-loving photographer, he does not seek to describe behavior or to unravel the mystery of a sensitive area of the animal that has remained unknown until now. What he finds with African elephants is the feeling of a rediscovered plenitude, of wonder at the world, of a rebirth, of a reconnection with the living. Far from the crowds and the urban world, it is in the heart of African national parks that he experiences the deep meaning of life, and that he offers himself the luxury of slowness, essential when he is about letting the animal approach.

According to the most recent estimates, the number of forest elephants in Africa has fallen by more than 86% in thirty years, and that of savannah elephants by at least 60% in the last fifty years.

About Authors

Alexandre Jardin will sign the preface of the book. Writer, since his first novel “Bille en tête”, he has brought together several generations of readers. Founder in 2015 of the citizen movement Bleu Blanc Zèbre, he is also a committed man. His words are deployed in texts that call for action.
To revolt, “to disobey together the stupidity of the world”, the force of the injunctions is in accordance to the battles to be waged. Defender of reading for all with his association “Lire et faire lire”, author of numerous children’s books, he knows to what extent words and images are there to tell the real and, also, to sublimate it when the imagination is useful the quest for truth. The Zebra has turned into an Elephant! Defender of reading for all with his association “Lire et faire lire”, author of numerous books for children, he knows to what extent words and images are there to express reality and also to sublimate it when the imagination is useful in the quest for truth. The Zebra has turned into an Elephant!

With Les Racines du ciel, published in 1956 and winner of Goncourt Prize, Romain Gary delivered one of the first ecological novels of the 20th century “the first call for help from our threatened biosphere”. Echoing this story of a Frenchman who is committed to the defense of elephants in French Equatorial Africa, the writer’s environmental sensitivity is also expressed in his Letter to the Elephant published in 1968 which will be fully reproduced in the book.

The Photographer

For nearly 20 years, Laurent Baheux has observed the upheavals of the wild world through his lens. A vocation which came to him “in reaction to the madness of men”. Born in 1970, in Poitiers, he made his debut as an autodidact in the early 1990s, during the time of film, as a photographer in the regional sports press. To find a place in the profession, he moved to Paris, where he worked for major photo agencies and media specializing in international sports news. A vocation that came to him “in reaction to the madness of men”. Born in 1970, in Poitiers, he made his debut as an autodidact in the early 1990s, during the time of film, as a photographer in the regional sports press.

In 2002, tired of city life and bored of the hectic pace of the sporting events calendar, he turned to Africa and the wildlife of large land mammals. In 2007, after 5 years of shooting in the savannah, he began to show his snapshots of wildlife captured on the spot, instinctively, at random from his encounters with animals. In 2009, he published his first work based on his African work: «Terre des Lions» then in 2011 «D’ivoire & d ́ébène». In 2013, he became a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Environment Program and participated in the Wild & Precious anti-poaching campaign. Since then, he has campaigned for the respect of living things and natural habitats, against captivity and animal exploitation and actively supports several organizations for the protection of animals and wild lands. In 2007, after 5 years of shooting in the savannah, he began to show his snapshots of wildlife captured on the spot, instinctively, at random from his encounters with animals. In 2009, he published his first work based on his African work: «Terre des Lions» then in 2011 «D’ivoire & d ́ébène». In 2013, he became a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Environment Program and participated in the Wild & Precious anti-poaching campaign. Since then, he has campaigned for the respect of living things and natural habitats, against captivity and animal exploitation and actively supports several organizations for the protection of animals and wild lands.
Praised for their aesthetic strength and authenticity, Laurent’s photos are the subject of books, publications, exhibitions, conferences and are shown in galleries in France and abroad. Since 2018, Laurent has been working with Sony Alpha cameras and Sony G Master lenses, and he has accepted to be one of the brand’s ambassadors.
Since 2018, Laurent has been working with Sony Alpha cameras and Sony G Master lenses, and he has accepted to be one of the brand’s ambassadors.