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Art, Activism, and the Amazon rainforest: photo exhibition on a Parisian street

… culture and climate: the legacy of French photographer Nicolas Reynard …

MARTINA NICOLLS

Sep 16

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Paris becomes an open-air gallery from 12 September to 12 October 2025. Photoclimat, the first free outdoor environmental and social biennial, transforms multiple streets across Paris into spaces for reflection, dialogue, and awareness. With 44 artists showcased, the event blends art and activism, offering new ways to engage with global challenges.

Photoclimat unfolds in the streets, removing barriers of access, cost, and exclusivity. Its mission is to raise awareness about environmental and social issues through art, the lens, and human conscience, by giving visibility to the work of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in civic engagement. In France, more than 12 million people (almost 20%) belong to an NGO or civic foundation.

One of the most striking contributions this year at the Paris Photoclimat event is French photographer Nicolas Reynard’s exhibition “Amazon: Ethnic Nests.” Reynard, who captured fragile landscapes and marginalized communities, turned his lens in 2004 to the traditional culture and nature of the Amazon rainforest.

Nicolas Reynard, born on 4 July 1959, wrote of his photography: “I strive to create true iconography that, I hope, can echo the anger of those fighting to protect the last free ethnic groups.”

His photography includes the Gabras of Kenya, the Moken of Thailand, the Chipaya of Bolivia, and the ethnic nests of the Amazon. He partnered with Le Figaro Magazine and Les Maisons du Voyage to advocate for the preservation of heritage and environment.

With the Brazilian government, Reynard participated in expeditions in 2004 tasked with approaching unknown Amazonian tribes to demarcate their land to ensure preservation. For this photo-journalism project, he provided photography for National Geographic, Le Figaro Magazine, and Géo during his travels to the Amazon rainforest while gathering testimonies on these cultures.

In “Amazon: Ethnic Nests” displayed at Saint-Sulpice Square in the 6^th arrondissement, Reynard captures the handwoven shelters and communal dwellings of Amazonian people. These structures are homes, but also expressions of identity, resilience, and ecological knowledge passed down through generations.

He did not complete his work as he died at the age of 45 on 11 November 2004 near Manaus with photo-journalist Joel Donnet and a Brazilian pilot Paulo Sergio de Miranda Correa. While reporting and flying over the Amazon rainforest, their seaplane crashed into the Rio Negro.

Climate activism aims to preserve cultures, not just carbon and trees. Twenty years after Reynard’s death, his work resonates with Photoclimat’s mission because it reveals how culture and climate are inseparable. To protect the Amazon rainforest is also to protect the people who live symbiotically within it.