“We don’t simply exhibit photographs,” Nicolas Henry, founder of Photoclimat, stated a few hours before the inauguration at Place de la Concorde, in Paris. “We create a space where art becomes advocacy.” The photographer’s natural ease, wearing a colorful sweater that day, contrasts with the bustle of the black-clad technical team, busy completing the installation of the pieces, between two squalls of rain.
Here, each artwork is a manifesto. Facing the obelisk stands the emblem of this third edition, dedicated to global warming: “Concordia,” a 15-meter openwork tower made of wood and rattan. Its parametric design, a computer-assisted creation method that follows the lines of the plant and animal world, is the signature of French architect Arthur Mamou-Mani, whose fame has soared since he designed the Burning Man temple in the Nevada desert.
Evoking the wings of a bird, the eco-designed installation displays a collection of highly diverse contemporary works. “We have a lot of young photographers this year who have a very personal visual language,” explains Nicolas Henry. One example is Gab Mejia, a queer Filipino photographer who created a series of portraits combining photography, drawing, and mythology, with the support of the Forest Preservation Alliance.
“I’m spotlighting the ecological role-models for the young generation,” he explains, sitting near the traditional Mongolian yurt erected a few meters from the prestigious Hôtel de la Marine, serving as a meeting room and refreshment point. “They are indigenous leaders, scientists, activists, and artists who are all united in the fight against deforestation.”
While a recent report from Global Forest Watch established that nearly 7 million hectares of tropical forests burned last year—the equivalent of 18 football pitches per minute!—these portraits represent a hope that everyone can support. “To survive, an NGO needs volunteers and donors,” Nicolas Henry reminds us. Faced with the climate and social crisis we are experiencing, it’s about raising awareness.
The activist’s lens
”We do street exhibitions, but Paris isn’t just a backdrop. 5 million visitors go to see these installations. The goal is for them to stop and learn about the work of NGOs.” And since traditional photography isn’t enough, he has to find new, impactful visual languages. “The public is sensitive to the power of images and stories. In our commissions, we really try to find original writing, with artists who are sensitive to what people their age are doing.”
“What attracted us to these young photographers,” he continues, “was their sense of staging, their in-depth work with the material, and their flair for color.” Ghanaian fashion photographer Prince Gyasi, who experiences synesthesia, is a good example. His photographs, which he describes as “Afro-pop,” explode with saturated colors and exude a striking, vibrant energy that transforms the Western viewer’s view of African narratives.
“As a visual artist, I believe my role is to redraw the image of Africa for the rest of the world, erasing the negativity often associated with its representations,” he says. His image of a Black female archer pointing her bow at the sky, a potentially far-reaching gesture since no one knows where the arrow will fall, was chosen as the headliner for the 2025 edition. “It’s a symbolic image of the current period where scientists constantly warn us, but we continue to ignore it,” comments Nicolas Henry.
Geographies of grief
This sense of urgency is reflected in Fabeha Monir’s documentation of Bangladesh for Action Against Hunger, which supports populations on the front lines of global warming. While 17% of the country could be submerged by 2050, the 32-year-old photographer rejects any sense of misery. “My work is about finding the framework where dignity and devastation coexist – because that’s where real change begins.”
Her images of the coastal district of Satkhira, where successive storms have excessively salinized once-farmable land, show families adapting as best they can to their environment. Brought together in a series entitled “Bangladesh: Cultivating the Future in the Face of Climate Change,” they pulse with life while documenting its precariousness. Like these children playing in waters that shouldn’t exist.
This tension between environmental degradation and vulnerability also runs through Sandrine Elberg’s works for Médecins du Monde, which are among the most powerful in this edition. Grouped under the title “Sensitive Zones,” they examine the impact of pollutants, junk food, and poverty on our bodies. “I wanted to reveal invisible health issues while remaining true to my style: dreamlike, black and white, a timeless aspect.”
Under her lens, pesticides from a vineyard form a bucolic cloud of dust. “It’s beautiful, but what happens if we breathe in these particles?” asks the artist. Further on, she captures the reflections of a survival blanket, enhanced by ink and light work that gives it a spectral aura. “I wanted to create a sober and stylized photograph of this tragic symbol.” In the artist’s language, bordering on abstraction, visual beauty and social deprivation coexist in a disturbing dialectic.
The double-edged sword of technology
In an era where artificial intelligence is redefining reality, Sacha Goldberger’s “Augmented Solitude” series for Petits Frères des Pauvres depicts another disturbing social reality. His pop portraits of isolated elderly people are enriched with imaginary digital companions. When visitors move their smartphones over the portraits, phantasmagorical figures generated by AI appear in the frame.
Jeanne, 81, wearing a polka-dot blouse and pearl necklace, poses in her dining room. “I love Simone Veil so much that I could imagine spending a weekend with her,” she confides. AI grants her wish: the first female president of the European Parliament appears beside her in a bathrobe. “Can algorithms replace human connection?” asks Goldberger. “These elderly people have rich inner worlds, but society has made them invisible.”
Commissioned to raise awareness of children’s rights, British photographer James Mollison documents their bedrooms. His images reveal the glaring inequalities from one country and family to another, between individual dreams and shattered destinies. Alex, a 9-year-old Brazilian, doesn’t even have a bed. Out of school and addicted to drugs, he begs to survive. “Most of the time, he sleeps outside, on an empty bench or an abandoned sofa,” says James Mollison. His disillusioned child’s gaze touches the soul.
An eye for an eye
Thought you’d seen it all? Think again! Other pairs of eyes, crowned with fur, feathers, or scales, are watching you. Terribly expressive, these are the animals we kill amidst general indifference by destroying their habitats, hunting them, and poisoning them. Tim Flach has made it his mission to change our view of them by capturing their portraits. Dressed to the nines in a oh-so-British floral suit, he justifies his anthropomorphic approach.
“The work I’ve done with social scientists shows that unless you make the animal person more relatable, we don’t relate to it as much empathy”, he explains. Sophisticated lighting, tight framing, theatrical staging. His close-ups reveal the personality of each subject, whether amphibian, bird, or mammal, thus reconciling human and animal.
This innovative animal scenography appealed to Nicolas Henry, always on the lookout for ideas to spark public interest and create engagement. This year, 40 photographers are exhibiting throughout Paris to highlight the work of associations facing increasing financial difficulties. “Major humanitarian NGOs have lost nearly half of their funding,” he worries. “We can no longer afford to do nothing.”
Photoclimat is open to the public from September 12 to October 12, 2025, at Place de la Concorde, Quais de Seine, and the Climate Academy in Paris. More information here
