Photographer Pierre Moreau is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this photo essay. From the project ‘Facing the Horizon’. To see Pierre’s body of work, click on any photograph.

Every summer, long lines of city dwellers leave our cities to meet the sea. They set off to experience days they have longed for and dreamed of all year. Facing the horizon, before the cradle of life, they will celebrate the great summer ritual dedicated to the Sun god.

Pierre Moreau is fascinated by this massive social phenomenon, on the one hand, and by the diversity of light and maritime atmospheres, on the other, as were Monet, Dufy, Manet, Boudin, and so many others before him.

For him, our vast stretches of sand constitute the stage for a grand, ever-changing theater, and the vacationers are its unwitting actors. He waits patiently, for long hours, on our beaches, for a chance to contribute to his project.

With each click, he tries to capture the beauty of this encounter between humankind and nature. A nature that is sometimes powerful, wild, and frightening, sometimes peaceful, gentle, and welcoming; summer visitors languid and nonchalant or in the midst of activity. He attentively observes the choreography of bodies in motion.

Born in France in 1942, after living in France, Germany, and Morocco, he entered the Royal Conservatory of Brussels in 1960 (flute) and the La Cambre National School of Visual Arts (photography department). He graduated in 1963. 

After serving for five years as the photographer for the European Commission and for several decades as an international advertising photographer (Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Canada, and the USA), he has been exhibiting large-format landscapes since 2011 in galleries, museums, cultural centers, and festivals, focusing on the theme of humanity's encounter with the sea. He has lived in Brussels since 1960.

All images and text © Pierre Moreau