The fragile and invisible ecosystem of the Arcachon basin highlighted in a photo exhibition in Bordeaux

Le Figaro Bordeaux

Every summer, tourists flood the beaches of the Arcachon basin, without necessarily suspecting that the water in which they bathe is home to rich biodiversity. Invisible to the naked eye, this fragile ecosystem, increasingly threatened by human activity, will be highlighted by the photographs of Frédéric Lamothe, during the exhibition, “Invi(e)sibles of the Arcachon Basin” , presented at the Mer Marine Museum in Bordeaux from October 18.

“Through a selection of around sixty macrophotographs taken by underwater photographer Frédéric Lamothe, this exhibition invites the public to explore the familiar waters of the basin with a new perspective, that of the tiny”explains the Bordeaux museum located at the Bassins à Flot. The underwater photographer’s work will also be presented alongside “that of other artists who wished to sublimate the natural riches of the region”.

“Surprising relationships” between species

To take his photographs, Frédéric Lamothe dives in the middle of the night, “when silence and darkness give the underwater world a mystical aura”. While he has been observing the depths of the Arcachon basin for more than 30 years, he notes “a clear deterioration in the living conditions of this invisible people, made invisible by the challenges of human activities” over the last ten years. Its work therefore aims to “become their spokesperson”.

“Frédéric Lamothe manages to capture a few intimate and decisive moments of this aquatic life, where the sweetness of birth rubs shoulders with the brutal realities of survival: an anemone releases a cottony cloud of gametes; a tear emerges from a hydroid while the next image sees it devouring a crustacean: an anemone serves as a refuge for a shrimp, which at the same time cleans its tentacles of parasites. So many scenes of underwater life revealing the “surprising relationships” between animal and plant species.