Afrique
Sheges of Kinshasa: the sacrified children of a wounded country.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, children whatever their age, can be pushed to the streets or deliberately abandoned, they are as many targets of family anger and fear. Then, they are called sheges, a name most often synonymous with “sorcerer-children”because their families think they have brought misfortune down on them: a mother fallen victim to AIDS, ill infants, a wedding that does not happen, work not found… In a society gradually falling apart, scapegoats have to be found…
Photos and text ©Dominique Viger/LightMediation
Contact - Thierry Tinacci - LightMediation Photo Agency +33 (0)6 61 80 57 21 thierry[AT]lightmediation.com
Cratère du Ngorongoro: le Creuset de la vie.
Souvent désigné comme la « huitième merveille du monde », le cratère du Ngorongoro en Tanzanie, offre la plus grande concentration de prédateurs de la planète abritée au creux d’une gigantesque caldera. Cette reserve biosphère de L’UNESCO, inscrite à juste titre au Patrimoine Mondial de l’Humanité, présente une cohabitation singulière entre anciens guerriers Massai et rois lions.
Photos ©Remi Benali/Lightmediation Texte ©Heather Robinson
Contact - Thierry Tinacci Agence Lightmediation +33 (0)6 61 80 57 21 thierry[AT]lightmediation.com
Oualata,a garden in the Sahara.
The sands almost wiped Oualata from human memory. In ruins only ten years ago, this former caravanserai in the Mauritanian desert has now won its formidable struggle to survive. An achievement due to the joint efforts of a Spanish humanitarian organization and the Mauritanian government, which managed to revitalize the village by setting up a vegetable garden. It is a story of rebirth.
Photos ©Pascal Meunier/Lightmediation Text ®Maud Tyckaert
Contact - Thierry Tinacci Lightmediation Photo Agency +33 (0)6 61 80 57 21 thierry[AT]lightmediation.com
The birth of an ocean in the hottest desert on Earth.
The Danakil desert located in the Afar triangle by the name of the tribes who live there, the Afar people, in northern Ethiopia on the Erythrean border, is 155 000 km2 large. In this desert, considered as the hottest on Earth (max. 60° C) and maybe the most inhospitable, we witness in real time the spectacular genesis of an ocean! Here on a geological scale, inexorably, the African horn is drifting away from the continent, and under our eyes is undergoing one of the greatest achievement of Gaia, the creation of a mid ocean ridge within the African Great Rift Valley.
Photos and text ©Eitan Haddok/LightMediation
Contact - Thierry Tinacci Lightmediation Photo Agency +33 (0)6 61 80 57 21 thierry[AT]lightmediation.com
Malaria, the killing Machine.
One hundred years after the discovery that malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes, the indomitable disease remains Africa’s major problem. The World Heath Organisation estimates that malaria affects 300 to 500 million people and kills up to 2.7 million worldwide every year, 90% of them in sub-saharan Africa. Every five seconds, an African child dies of the disease.
Photographs ©Remi Benali/Lightmediation
Contact - Thierry Tinacci Lightmediation Photo Agency +33 (0)6 61 80 57 21 thierry[AT]lightmediation.com
The mysterious kingdoms of the Nile.
In the words of French writer, Olivier Rolin, “More truly and mysteriously than Egypt, Sudan is the realm of this fabled river”. The magnetic beauty of North Sudan bears a resemblance to what Egypt was a century ago, before industrialisation and tourism took over. A country whose people are exceptionally open and warm. There are few roads leading northwards from Khartoum following the path of the Nile, and conditions are tough. The region is extraordinarily rich in archaeological heritage: on 11 January 2003 seven monumental statues of kings of the 25th dynasty were discovered in Kerma by members of the Swiss mission led by Charles Bonnet. But the 20 years of conflict between Muslims in the north and Christians in the south, and the current massacre in the Darfur region, have sadly done nothing to develop the country’s heritage. The building of a dam on the 4th cataract is now threatening to destroy some exceptional and still little-known sites.
Photos ©Cyril le Tourneur d’Ison Text ®Claudine Le Tourneur d’Ison
Contact - Thierry Tinacci Agence Lighmediation +33 (0)6 61 80 57 21 thierry[AT]lightmediation.com
Oriental Baths : from magic to oblivion… Embargo sur la France
If in Europe going to Turkish baths is considered an exotic practice, it represents, for a majority of Muslims, more than just a place to unwind. Its cleansing, social and religious virtues have attracted many followers. For all that, it is more and more in decline in the medinas, poorly resisting the modern world and its chain of changes. Neglected, it seems like a monument inherited from the elders, devoid of any role to play. And with it, a whole way of life is threatened… Pascal Meunier has brought back from his many trips to Syria, Turkey, Yemen, Egypt, Lebanon, Iran, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Emirates, a unique portrayal of these magical places.
Photos ©Pascal Meunier/Lightmediation Text ®Maud Tyckaert
Contact - Thierry Tinacci Agence Lightmediation +33 (0)6 61 80 57 21 thierry[AT]lightmediation.com
Rêves de Sahara…
De l’Atlantique à la mer Rouge, le Sahara étire à l’infini ses paysages sublimes. Couvrant plus de huit millions de kilomètres carrés, c’est le plus grand désert du monde, et pour nombre de spécialistes le plus beau. Voyager au Sahara, c’est découvrir la magie de sa lumière, se laisser envahir par l’immensité des dunes, se perdre dans les forteresses de pierres et se reposer dans les oasis à l’ombre d’un palmier dattier.
Aux porte de l’Europe, à moins de quatre heures de vol de nos capitales, un voyage au Sahara est le meilleur moyen de se ressourcer. Au rythme des Touaregs, on oublie l’agitation des villes pour retrouver ses racines et pressentir l’absolu. Une dizaine de pays se partagent le Sahara. Des sables colorés de l’Amatlich en Mauritanie aux étranges sculptures de craie du désert Blanc en Egypte, des châteaux de grès du Tassili du Hoggar en Algérie, aux lacs insoupçonnés d’Oubari en Libye, le Sahara dissimule une formidable diversité.
© Reportage réalisé en panoramiques (24×65) par Jean Robert / Lightmediation
Forbidden Egypt - L’Egypte interdite
English:
For the vast majority, travelling in Egypt today means keeping to the circuits offered in the tourist brochures. Does the land of the Pharaohs have nothing else to offer to the more demanding traveller? Surely a growing number of tourists are dismayed at the prospect of fighting their way through the crowds to get a glimpse of the country’s mythical monuments, after being dropped off by their coach in a car park that makes the temple of Karnak look small in comparison? We set out to discover the regions the tourist industry does not reach, where westerners are not particularly welcome or where access is restricted, to say the last. To earn the right to visit this unknown Egypt other than from behind the tinted windows of an air-conditioned bus under police escort, you need to be armed with infinite patience, a stock of hard-won authorizations and a plentiful supply of baksheesh money. This is the price to pay for access to Egypt’s eternal sands and stone and for a genuine encounter with the Egyptian people.
Français:
Voyager aujourd’hui en Égypte, pour la plupart des visiteurs, c’est se conformer à des circuits balisés et sécurisés. La terre des Pharaons laisse-t-elle encore quelques espaces de liberté au voyageur exigeant ? Combien de visiteurs lassés par des hauts lieux mythiques surpeuplés où les parkings de bus sont désormais plus vastes que le temple de Karnak ? Nous avons tenté de découvrir les chemins de traverse, les régions méprisées par l’industrie touristique, interdites aux occidentaux, ou tout au moins aux accès ultra réglementés. Pour faire ce voyage, pour ouvrir le regard sur une Égypte méconnue, autrement que derrière les vitres teintées d’un bus climatisé escorté par la police touristique, il faut être armé de patience, d’autorisations âprement négociées, et d’une réserve substantielle de bakchichs. L’accès aux éternités de sable et de pierre et les vrais rencontres avec les Égyptiens sont à ce prix.
Photos et texte © Cyril le Tourneur d’Ison / Lightmediation
South Africa : the last sanctuary of the Chinese tigers.
Li Quan is a 44-year-old Chinese woman who devotes her life to the protection of the Chinese tiger species. With the help of her husband Stuart Bray, an American businessman, she has created the foundation Save China’s Tigers, and has fought since 1999 to prevent the ancestor of all tigers from disappearing…For there remain only 65 tigers in the zoos in China, and perhaps a few dozen in the wild.
Li Quan’s goal is to create a natural reserve in China where the tigers and other endangered species could live. But consolidating enough land in China would require much time, which is why, in the face of the urgency of the situation, Li Quan turned to South Africa to try out her plan.
So, the last refuge for the Chinese tigers can today be found…in South Africa.
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