Do you know the work of Vincent Munier? This wildlife photographer and naturalist highlights wildlife from all over the world and regularly addresses environmental issues through his magnificent images. With the film The Snow Panther, which is released today, December 15, 2021, this nature lover once again challenges us on the beauty and fragility of wild species.
Vincent Munier was born in the Vosges and became interested in photography at a very early age.
From the age of 12, he became passionate about nature photography and spent most of his time photographing the wild animals of the forests in his native region.
Even today, his work as a Wildlife photographer is motivated by a deep respect and passion for nature.
Vincent Munier has traveled the four corners of the world to photograph wildlife. His most noted projects involve the white wolves of Ellesmere Island in Canada as well as the swans and cranes he photographed on the Japanese island of Hokkaido.
He is the first photographer to be awarded the BBC Wildlife photographer of the Year - Erik Hosking Award three years running.
His work is exhibited in art galleries and published in prestigious magazines around the world. He has also published his own photography books with Kobalann, the publishing house he founded in 2010.
For the film La Panthère des neiges, which comes out in theaters on December 15, 2021, Vincent Munier took the writer Sylvain Tesson to the heart of the Tibetan highlands, between 4500 and 6000 meters of altitude.
During this trip to Tibet on the trail of the enigmatic feline, he introduced the writer to the delicate art of stalking, to the Reading of animal tracks and to the patience that is essential to catch a glimpse of wildlife.
This quest for the snow leopard also offered an excuse to weave a dialogue about our place in the living world and to celebrate the beauty of our planet.
Vincent Munier himself acknowledges this:'The panther, at heart, is a pretext. A sumptuous pretext, but a pretext.'
During their trip, the two men were not sure to come across this animal nicknamed 'the ghost of the mountains'.
On this subject Vincent Munier says: 'I had not promised him to see the panther. I told him 'Sylvain I'm starting to know this place well, we have a good chance to see it.' and we had this incredible chance, a few days before the end of the stay.'
This documentary film, co-directed by Vincent Munier and his partner Marie Amiguet, was made following the success of Sylvain Tesson's novel The Snow Panther, which was a best-selling phenomenon upon its release.
The film, distributed by Haut et Court, is a kind of contemplative making of the expedition from which Sylvain Tesson based the novel.
For this overjoyed writer, learning patience was not self-evident... It is this experience that he has put down on paper in his novel, which has sold nearly 500,000 copies after winning the Renaudot Prize in 2019.
Shot in sometimes extreme conditions, in temperatures as low as -25 degrees, this documentary is an ode to the beauty of the world.
About his approach as a photographer and videographer, Vincent Munier says: 'I chose to celebrate beauty rather than dig into despair.'
This documentary invites us to take the time to open our eyes and look at the wildlife around us that we are destroying. Are you ready to be awake?
Author Audrey on 11 December 2023
Art and Culture : Festival
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