Photographer Florian Coelo is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this photo essay. From the project ‘From west to west – Landscape samples of a changing countryside’. To see Florian’s body of work, click on any photograph.

From West to West is an exploration of the countryside in western France. The project’s idea was to capture ordinary landscapes, far from tourist routes that sometimes convey a clichéd or idealized image of rural territories. Instead, I wanted to photograph a territory undergoing profound transformations, a countryside which is transforming to adapt to the changes in our modern world while remaining steeped in the farming world of olden times that is disappearing.

These photos were taken during the winter of 2022. Equipped with only a single 50mm lens, I travelled the roads of western France in my camper van in order to photograph rural areas. Also, as a narrative choice, I decided to take my photos in winter only. With its dormant vegetation, its paused tourism, and its secluded population, it’s a season that, despite itself, imposes a kind of honesty.

I see this series as a kind of testimony, in a way, of a territory undergoing profound transformations. A testimony that captures the action and daily lives of human beings without directly photographing them. A testimony of my grandparents’ small farm located in the northwest of France, which could no longer exist today in our modern world.

Florian Coelo is a French professional photographer who works on artistic and documentary projects related to the concepts of territory and environment. At the same time, he also collaborates with players in architecture, heritage, landscape, tourism, and activity spaces as well as with companies and professionals in the artistic and craft sectors.

My photographic work is an exploration of the territory and its mutations. On one hand, I question through a documentary approach, the place of human being at the heart of his environment. I thus photograph evolutions of the natural and artificial spaces that surround us, whether they evoke the past or the future, enchant, intrigue or be thought-provoking. Through my photographs, I seek to question the notions of the wild and the built, their entanglement or their dissociation, in order to observe their evolution and act accordingly in a world in full environmental upheaval. On the other hand, I use photography for its narrative dimension and its power of wonder to offer a little of the beauty that surrounds us.

All images and text © Florian Coelo