A unique exhibition in Paris honors the extraordinary work of Nicolas Reynard, a photographer-adventurer who dedicated his life to documenting indigenous tribes facing extinction in the Amazon rainforest. As part of the Photoclimat festival, Les Maisons du Voyage presents this tribute to a reporter who undertook the ambitious task of creating an inventory of endangered indigenous communities until his tragic death in 2004.
Long before the terms "globalization" and "modernization" entered common vocabulary, anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss called indigenous peoples "the flowers of difference." These strange populations, lost tribes, and rebellious ethnic groups remain impermeable to modernity, finding themselves displaced on an Earth that has become too small and subject to a single law. It is the ethnologist's job to meet them, to tell their stories and bear witness. It is also the mission of the photojournalist who seeks to freeze moments of an era on film.
Nicolas Reynard devoted his life to these outcasts of history: the Gabra of Kenya, the Mokens of Thailand, the Chipayas of Bolivia, but especially all the ethnic enclaves of an Amazon he loved above all else. Somewhere between a philosophical Tintin and a cautious Indiana Jones, this image hunter focused on those whom modern times disturb and trample. In the humid and dark forests of the Brazilian jungle, he met and immortalized the Matis, reduced to just a few hundred individuals who perpetuate the hunter-gatherer way of life, as well as forgotten indigenous groups along the winding paths of a mythical river that never ends.
Reynard's work served as an echo to the anger of those fighting to protect the last free ethnic groups. "I strive to create a true iconography that, I hope, can echo the anger of those who fight to protect the last free ethnic groups," he once explained. Nicolas Reynard loved the Amazon passionately. He believed that through his photography work, he would help make it better known and therefore help protect it.
Working alongside Brazil's Ministry of Indian Affairs, he participated in expeditions tasked with approaching unknown tribes to delimit their territory and preserve their future. For years, parallel to his work for the most prestigious international magazines including National Geographic, Le Figaro Magazine, and Paris Match, he ventured deep into the forest and returned with extraordinary, timeless stories, gathering over the years exceptional testimony about these individuals living on borrowed time.
Tragically, Nicolas never completed his ambitious mission. He died while on assignment on November 11, 2004, near Manaus, along with journalist Joël Donnet when the small seaplane in which they were flying over the Amazon jungle crashed into the Rio Negro. What remains are these forgotten, moving photographs of ever-increasing relevance that express both ethnological rigor and original artistic reflection.
For his black and white photographs, his secret weapon was the Polaroid camera. "Each time, I give the positive to the person or people photographed, keeping the negative that I then use," he confided. "The photo becomes an exchange." One cannot help but see in these negatives, altered by humidity and dust, covered with stains and scratches, a troubling homage to his idol, Edward Curtis (1868-1952), the legendary photographer who immortalized North American Indians.
This body of work by Nicolas Reynard serves as a tribute to ethnic groups that live in complete tranquility, without connection to our era. But for how long? Terribly threatened by the depredations of progress, by gold miners and farmers, by diseases brought by our civilizations, they live on borrowed time. When Portuguese navigator Pedro Cabral reached the South American coast in 1500, there were approximately 11 million Indians in what is now Brazil. Five hundred years later, only about 300,000 survive.
Concerned with working toward a more sustainable world and raising public awareness about the beauty of our natural and human heritage, Le Figaro Magazine and Les Maisons du Voyage have joined forces to present this unique exhibition of Nicolas Reynard's work at 76 rue Bonaparte, Paris 6th arrondissement, running until November 28. The exhibition is part of the photographic program of the Photoclimat biennial, continuing the mission of this photographer-adventurer who captured the essence of disappearing worlds before they vanished forever.
