Imagine Saudi Arabia in Canada, unthinkable ? think again! The tar sands, a geological feature unique in the world, are stretching over a 75 000 square kilometer area and contain more than 3000 billion of tons of hydrocarbons whose 300 billions tons are exploitable. This natural resource moved Canada ahead of oil producing countries, just behind Saudi Arabia! A manna for some, but a real nightmare for others. According to environmentalists the oil iproducedd in Alberta’s tar sands is the dirtiest in the world. Welcome into the country of colossal excess, where each grain of sand contains gold, black gold that is.

Photos and text ©Patrice Halley/LightMediation

Contact – Thierry Tinacci LightMediation Photo Agency +33 (0)6 61 80 57 21 thierry[AT]lightmediation.com

This feature story is an invitation to witness special moments, mostly photographed near where Vincent Munier lives high on the humped back of the Vosges and some taken during his recent travels around the Artic Circle. In both cases, the inital objective was the same: to slip into the skin of each animal to understand and approach it, sense its feelings and reactions in the most extreme moments. With perfection in mind, he went looking for a blizzard and the blizzard took hold of him. On the island of Hokkaido with cranes and whooper swans; in the Scandinavian tundra with musk oxen; in the vast Canadian plains where the majestic snowy owl lives.

Photos and text ©Vincent Munier/Lightmediation

Contact – Thierry Tinacci Lightmediation Photo Agency +33 (0)6 61 80 57 21 thierry[AT]lightmediation.com