25 - 27 October 2024
Individual exhibitions in the 'Bildersaal'
The festival exhibitions present a wide range of subjects, from wildlife and breathtaking landscapes to macro shots of plants and insects. Each photograph tells a story and reveals the extraordinary connection between photography and nature. The photographers are masters at capturing the right moment.
The exhibitions at the International Nature Photography Festival are not only visually appealing, but also contribute to raising awareness for environmental protection and nature conservation. The beauty and fragility of the natural wonders on display remind us how important it is to protect and preserve our environment.
Luca Lorenz | Feathers in focus - Fifteen variations
Fully focussed on feathers. No other creatures fascinate Luca more than birds. He realises his photographic ideas using unusual perspectives, underexposure, overexposure, slow shutter speeds, and sophisticated image compositions. Luca loves to highlight the beauty of birds in a minimalist, abstract and sometimes pictorial, whimsical way.
Luca Lorenz is a wildlife photographer from Berlin. Growing up in the countryside north of the city, Luca became enthusiastic about exploring nature at a young age. Fascinated by Germany's native birds, his watchful gaze always wanders to the treetops. Luca loves to observe bird behaviour for hours, immerse himself in bird songs, and share his enthusiasm and appreciation for these enchanting creatures with family and friends.
At only 19 years of age, Luca has already won a series of awards and is delighted that his photographs have attracted so much attention.
www.lucalorenz.de
Olivier Larrey | Land of wolves
More than a nature exhibition, Land of wolves has the semblance of a photo reportage of the type that is rare in the world of wildlife photography. While the craft of the image hunter usually leads photographers to roam far and wide in search of coveted subjects, Olivier Larrey chose to shut himself away in a minuscule wooden hide for weeks on end without coming out, waiting for the animals to come to him.
It was on the outer limits of a no man’s land at the Finnish-Russian border that he plunked down his adventurer’s backpack to realise his dream of encountering and monitoring a pack of wolves.
He invites us to join him in the midst of a peatland on the edge of the boreal forest - to sit quietly and spend a moment admiring life at its wildest.
During five voyages and eighty days of observation, Olivier captured never before seen images in both colour and black & white. One of these stunning photographs went on to win the grand prize in the 2021 Montier International Wildlife Photo Competition.
Olivier is the author of several works published by Regard du Vivant: Taïga (2016), Toundra (2019) and Terre de Loups (2023), regularly exhibits his work in various European countries, and has received multiple awards for his photographs, notably the grand prize at the Montier-en-Der Photo Festival in 2021.
“I will return again and again to the Far North, to better understand the cold lands but also to learn more about myself. Today I work as a professional photographer in association with Regard du Vivant, and I guide trips for the company Let's go travel." Olivier became Leica Ambassador in 2024.
www.olivierlarrey.org
Tobias Büttel and Christopher Meyer | MELTING GIANTS - Disappearance of the eternal ice
We belong to the generation that will experience the disappearance of most glaciers in the Alps first-hand. In the last 200 years, Germany has lost around three quarters of its glacial mass. The Schlatenkees, the largest valley glacier in East Tyrol, Austria, retreated by 89 meters in 2022 alone. With a 2.7°C rise in global temperature, scientists predict that glaciers worldwide will shrink by 90 % by the end of the century. Most glaciers in Austria and Germany may even disappear within the next 50 years. But what is happening in the Alps seems trivial compared to the global threat posed by sea level rise due to ice melting in the Arctic and Antarctic.
With our project, we want to provide unique insights into this wonderful environment and address the inevitable consequences of climate change. Global warming will not wait for politics and society, we need to act now.
Instagram: @tobias.buettel | www.tobiasbuettel.de
Christopher Meyer studied landscape ecology. He works in nature conservation and lives in southern Bavaria. His studies led him to documentary nature photography. Over the years, his enthusiasm for a creative approach to nature has grown. Christopher gives lectures, writes articles in specialist journals, designs illustrated books, and is head of the German Society for Nature Photography's regional group 15 (Munich and Southern Bavaria).
Instagram: @chris.meyer.photo | www.chrismeyerphoto.de
Felix Wesch | Forest
During his almost obsessive search for the perfect photograph in the region's forests, Felix captures images that are characterised by reserved colours and, above all, a moody tranquillity. Here, fog plays an essential role. Fog that gently covers trees like a veil and shrouds the landscape in mysterious silence. The large-format prints in Felix' exhibition showcase these calm, decelerated, yet fleeting moments.
Born in Heidelberg in 1980, Felix Wesch lived in Stuttgart, Vienna and Marburg an der Lahn before moving to Bonn in 2020. He likes to describe himself as a photographic opportunist who prefers to find his subjects in the natural environments of his immediate surroundings where he can quickly respond to special light and weather conditions. Currently, Felix has a special fondness for the forests around Bonn. In addition to his website and blog, he runs a YouTube channel about photography, writes articles, holds workshops, and simply loves being out and about in nature around his home town.
