Photographer Maurice Cuquel is exhibiting 34 photographs “Confluences-sur-Garonne” from today until October 31, at the Protestant retirement home in Montauban. This subject came to him after a first work, “Un chant de Garonne”, which made him aware of the presence of many different actors linked to the river.
“Sahrawis: 18 liters” is his first work directly related to water. A subject produced in 2018 during his fifth stay in the Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria, a story of the journey of water from capture to distribution. Current events recently took him to Albania where he became interested in the last wild river in Europe, the Vjosa, classified as a National Park, an unprecedented status on the continent. This last subject was presented in Perpignan as part of the Off of the Visa pour l’image Photojournalism Festival. Maurice Cuquel has therefore explored four subjects on the theme of water in recent years.
Maurice Baux speaks of his friend: “This photographic work by Maurice Cuquel is an invitation to rise beyond the meanders of the Garonne towards the discovery of a contemporary human geography. His investigation reveals the portraits of river people, driven by new motivations that act on the river, towards the river, for the river, with the river, to transmit, manage, educate, create, animate, protect.”
