Coral

Through his powerful and spectacular photographs, Martin Colognoli's first book lies somewhere between documentary and art. A beautiful photobook that embodies and supports the inextricable link between an Indonesian fishing village and the coral reef on which its survival depends. A photographic history in 130 photographs and four chapters like a relational sequence that plays out (and knots) infinitively. The book is presented in four stages: the coral, the human, the link and the actions of protection, like a chronological, didactic and circular journey, a relational sequence that plays out ad infinitum. Each one introduces a text and sometimes opens on a questioning. No legend here, only the humble testimony of the photographer, sharing the daily life of a community of former nomads, without water or roads, and on their dependence on this hybrid character, an animal living with a plant, which is coral. A total of 130 colour and black& white images a bias that exploits the full range of photographic renderings constituting this advocacy carried out over six years of work and reporting. Martin thus mixes simple and shimmering scenes from the daily life of fishermen, catching their smile, capturing their gaze, with monochrome shots of materials, reliefs and textures like an x-ray vision of the coral animal. AUTHORS: This photographic work by Martin Colognoli retraces six years of field experience in Indonesia with a fishing village when he piloted for Coral Guardian, the NGO he created in 2012, the implementation of a action program aimed at training villagers in the restoration of coral reefs destroyed by dynamite fishing. This book is intended as a real hymn to the defense of biodiversity and a tribute to coral as an ecosystem essential to our survival. It aims to become a tool for raising awareness of the fragility of living things through a moment of wonder and optimism, a potential beginning of change to come. Born in 1945 in Sydney, Charlie Veron is considered "the godfather of coral". An Australian biologist specialising in the study of corals and their reefs, he named approximately 20% of coral reefs and discovered and delineated the Coral Triangle. Chalie Veron is also an environmental activist. Denis Allemand is a university professor in animal biology and scientific director of the Scientific Center of Monaco. His main area of research concerns the physiology of marine organisms, mainly corals, and their use as model organisms to understand the major problems of biology (biomineralisation, symbiosis, ageing, etc.).