French photographer Yan Artus-Bertran is a very strict and self-reserved person; a real professional. However, when you look at the images that he has created, you start to get emotional and start going deep into your thoughts. He went to Kenya 30 years ago to visit his wife who had been studying the lives of lions for three years. A group of scientists researched the family of Praia lions day and night for three consecutive years in order to picture their lives. Many photographs were taken during the research. “I understood that a photograph contains more information than a text, so I decided to dedicate myself to photography because you can explore many things through photography,” says Yan Artus-Bertran who had visited Armenia for a couple of days. By seeing the difference between the land and sky while being in the helicopter and took pictures, he created thousands of beautiful images.
– Even when I went back to France, since my children had to study there, I continued to take photographs in the helicopter. In 1992, there was a conference dedicated to the ecological issues in Rio de Janeiro and hundreds of countries were discussing the ecological situation of the country they represented. It was after that conference that I realized that our planet Earth is endangered. The ozone layer is decaying, rivers are drying up and there are other disasters. I truly felt bad when I found out about this. Much had to be done to prevent the world and I started to photograph the world from the sky. I love being in the sky. Looking down from the sky is deeper because you have a wider vision. By looking from above, you think deeper about the danger that threatens all of us.
– You don’t feature many people in your photographs. Is man really that unimportant in the picture?
-There are many people featured in my photos; better yet, there are many traces of people. The traces of man are the homes built by man, cars and other things. Man appears in the majority of photographs. Besides, I don’t create anything new. I only photograph what I see-our land.
– Do you think that all problems are caused by man?
– Yes, definitely.
– What kind of ecological problem did you notice in Armenia?
– I am certain that Armenia has the same ecological issues facing the entire world. I have not come to Armenia to show what problems Armenia faces. My job is to draw people’s attention to the present situation. Right now, as we speak, there is a great danger facing the world and each person is responsible to think about that. Very few people realize that danger. Even my close friends do not want to believe that that could be real. In France, we work with 65 schools and our desire is to see children be interested in the future of the planet. I would like for them to view the world in a different way.
– Did you get a chance to get acquainted with Armenian youth during your visit for the exhibition?
– A little. I noticed that Armenians are very nationalistic
– I believe that the French are also nationalistic.
– We are nationalist in a different way. But, in any case, each person must think about what he or she can do to help one another. There are rich and poor people in the world. That is injustice in the world and there is no equality. We can not change that, but we must simply accept it and know that it is unjust. Our world is developing along the longitude. We must move forward by not polluting the world and destroying it. The photograph is only a means of making people understand the necessity of that. My goal is to solve ecological issues and it is through those solutions that everything can develop.
– Do you have any other projects for continuing the struggle?
– Currently, I am working on a project which is called “6 billion others”. I am going to ask 6 billion people one question and tape their responses. The responses to that one question will be filmed and shown in the “Pompidu” art center of Paris in 2008. Through that video film, we will find out the mentality of the inhabitants of the planet. As each one of my projects, this one is also going to be shown free of charge.
– Did the “Land from the Sky” exhibition in Yerevan differ from the exhibitions shown in other countries?
– I need resources to show my exhibitions and because of lack of resources the exhibition in Armenia was not complete. In other countries, exhibitions are open air and viewers pay more attention to the script-legends. This exhibition shown in Yerevan has been presented to 60 billion people in more than 100 countries in the world. No matter what, those people will be amazed at what they have seen. It is not my job to change people’s mentality, but I hope that they will look at the world differently. It is very important for me to visit small countries like Armenia. The next country on my list is Tajikistan. People living in small countries often don’t have the means to travel and by attending these kinds of exhibitions, they get acquainted with the lives of people living near to and far away from them. They see and understand that they are living in the same world and if one part of the world is destroyed, then they will feel that too. Something gets ruined somewhere and destroys the other.