PYRÈNE
CREDITS
In his series Pyrène, French photographer Léo Delafontaine (b. 1984) captures the serenity of the Bagnères-de-Bigorre, a thermal station in the French Pyrenees. By including landscape photographs of sunsets and haze-covered mountaintops, Delafontaine highlights the different types of beauty in the Pyrenees. His series is also comprised of portraits of the Bagnères-de-Bigorre’s inhabitants, ranging from children with wonder-filled expressions to adults staring directly at the camera. Delafontaine shares that his time in Bagnères-de-Bigorre was marked by “improbable encounters”, and we as viewers are left to contemplate the interactions with people in his portraits.
Between the curious expressions on his subjects’ faces, to the awe-evoking nature, Delafontaine shows an atmosphere rife with mystery and wonder. The hazy skies in some of the photographs reinforce this sentiment and show how fantasy creeps into real life.