Still book "Ground Noise" by Céline Clanet, ACTES SUD, 2023

Céline Clanet (CC): Céline we are happy to have you again on Journal and above all to discover your latest projects and publications. Let's start with the most recent "Ground Noise". What pushed you to expand your observatory in this direction?

Thanks for having me here!
In my previous series, I worked on remote territories (Arctic, mountains…), and the relationships between humans, landscapes, animals. During the pandemic, I could only work on my closest territory, no being able to travel. I started « Ground Noise » at that time, and decided to work on the forest world. It was the closest natural landscape available.
I didn’t want any human in that work, I focused on the forest landscape only: I wanted to dive into it, to reveal its intimacy. This is litterally what I have tried to do: I dug its soil, turned over its foliage and its trees barks, searched in spiders webs, in order to collect samples, trying to reveal the invisible side of the forest. I spendt hours and hours alone within her (forest gender is female in French).

In this series you also use microscopic photographs. Can you tell me something about this technology? Any challenge you faced?

CC: I used a SEM (scanning electron microscope) which is a large scientific research device that creates micrographs. I worked with an institute called INRAE, in the Paris region.
Those are not photographs, as no light or any optical system are involved - only electrons sendt over a sample in the dark, and their signal "translated" into bits and image by a computer - but the result is utterly photographic.
I've been wishing to use this technology for a long time: just as photography, it explores the surface of (very small) things. It is a topographic tool, like a regular camera, in a way, and it doesn’t see through matter for instance.
Therefore it allowed me to associate photographs with micrographs, mixing the visible and invisible worlds, indiscriminately.
But it is not such an easy tool. It is expensive, slow and time consuming: during a one-day session, getting 5 good micrographs is wonderful. Also, it has its own vision: you never know how a sample is going to "look like", which is exciting, but can be disappointing as well. The electron beam can be harsh on some samples and damage them, or just making no focus possible on some volatile and light matter such as mycelium. It is a capricious tool, but still, one of my favorite « camera » so far. I took me to places I've never been before, such as the back of a beetle.

© Céline Clanet from "Ground Noise"

Going down to the micro scale somehow reveals an otherwise invisible world. What did you learn from that observation?

CC: Fragility is what comes first to my mind. Getting closer to arthropods allows to see scars and signs of their harsh life: wings are broken, legs are missing, scratches spread all over shells… getting closer to them makes us see their fragility, their personal history, therefore their individuality and subjectivity - "subjectivity" is not what comes first in mind when thinking of a population of 10 billions of billions of arthropods, mostly insects, living on our planet just as we speak. It was important to figure out that two wings from the same species don't exactly look the same.

© Céline Clanet from "Ground Noise"

© Céline Clanet from "Ground Noise"

Still book "Ground Noise" by Céline Clanet, ACTES SUD, 2023

The series uses predominantly black and white. Can you tell us about this choice and whether it led to other considerations in any way with regard to your practice and the understanding of nature?

CC: The SEM device, producing only B&W files, influenced me to shoot all my pictures in those same tones. I wanted the visible and invisible worlds to look and be as one (because, they are indeed). Also, B&W allows to see in a simple, primitive way, out of time, which was consistent with the general theme.
At some point, the SEM aesthetics influcenced even more my photographs in the forests: its very peculiar way of producing "light" (even if it is not photons, but electrons signal "translated" into bitmaps) that sometimes looks like a studio spotlight, inspired me to use artificial lighting in the forest. This is how I started to light up trees, branches, ground… to see another side of it all, and to mix those photographs even more easily with the SEM micrographs.

Let's talk about the book. Tell us what the challenges were in editing this work and the key choices you had to face.

CC: I wanted the editing and sequence of the images to make the viewer feel a constant round trip between scales, to be lost in what is from the visible or the invisible. Therefore we chose (with Géraldine Lay, my publisher at Actes Sud) different sizes for the pictures, and several layouts: full pages, 3 pictures on a page, 1 picture alone, etc. The layout couldn't be linear, it needed a hectic tempo.
I kept the same principle for the exhibition, with 5 print sizes, from very large to very small.

Still book "Ground Noise" by Céline Clanet, ACTES SUD, 2023

Still book "Ground Noise" by Céline Clanet, ACTES SUD, 2023

© Céline Clanet from "Ground Noise"

Your work allows the public to observe nature, to understand its transformations and interactions with the human species. What did you appreciate about this research into the world of arthropods? What does this book have to teach us?

CC: It is deeply moving to see how things look alike, when you watch them closer. Going back and forth with scales made me travel whithin the mineral, animal and plant kingdoms in a very peculiar way: a spider egg looks like a planet, mosquito's antennas looks like grass, a moth wing is composed of scales that look exactly like bird feathers… It seems that each thing is the visual echo of another one, regardless its kingdom. I think this can provide interesting food for thoughts…

© Céline Clanet from "Ground Noise"

How important was research, in terms of dialogue with experts and knowledge of the subject, in this work? Any significant collaborations you want to mention and why?

CC: Before starting any project, "Ground Noise" included, I research a lot and read scientific material. It is my base for any photo work.
For that series I've read entomology articles and books, as I wanted to understand the arthropods structures, their anatomy, how they live. I wanted to understand what I was watching through the SEM.
Eventually I have spendt a long time identifying my creatures, because I wanted my captions to be very precise. I didn't want any mystery about what is pictured in the micrographs. I wanted the viewer to know that this perfect "round moon" is actually a spider egg, found in the very common Bois de Vincennes (Paris), and that an ordinary insect is actually an extraordinary creature.
I mostly did that visual research work on my own through books, articles, internet. 

© Céline Clanet from "Ground Noise"

In the book, I hold a conversation with Jérôme Sueur, a french ecoacoustician and lecturer-researcher at the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle in Paris. We exchange about our practices, and especially how we both need to "disappear in the landscape" - on his case, when he records soundscapes, and in my case when I shoot or collect samples.

Your work often refers to commissions and partnerships with institutions. How difficult is it to position yourself as an author in this sense? What advice can you give to young people who are inspired by your work?

CC: It is not so difficult to position myself as an author, but it is often difficult for partners and institutions to figure out issues that goes with being an author. It is not their world, therefore you must adapt and speak their language: straight to the point. What will they get by working with me? What do I need from them to achieve my project, which eventually will become ours? And talking about money should never be a taboo topic.
But I guess photographers know very well how to adapt, it is the core of their practice: getting out to the world and making photographs of it implies constant adaptation to new people, territories and situations. We are chameleons (with photo gear).
As for general advices, I think Rihanna gives the only useful one: « Work, work, work ».

© Céline Clanet from "Ground Noise" 

Céline Clanet (website)