OCEAN & POLAR EXPLORATION
Frozen Lands & Infinite Sea

 
 


In recent years I have focused entirely on exploration of the five oceans and their islands, including some of the most remote on the planet.


Previous projects include entering the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, the semi-circumnavigation of the Antarctic continent, and sailing through the South Atlantic Ocean. In 2019, I joined the French Government’s scientific expedition to the French Southern and Antarctic Lands (“T.A.A.F.”) in the South Indian Ocean.


The ongoing Pacific Ocean project focuses on climate change and global warming, and how vulnerable islands adapt to this problem. I interviewed policy makers, multiple organizations, NGO's, universities and private citizens. A new book is coming up.


I have sailed the five oceans in pursuit of my passion to document the beauty and vulnerability of our planet. During these expeditions, I observed the relationship between man and nature from a number of perspectives. In 2019, 2021 and 2023, I attended the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP25, COP26 and COP28) as an official Belgian delegate, which included presenting my work. At COP27 and COP28, I was the Head of Delegation of the World Ocean Network, an international association working to raise public awareness about the importance of the ocean.

In June 2023, I had the honor of immortalizing my work at the Arctic World Archive, a facility deep in the permafrost to protect and preserve the world's cultural heritage, knowledge and data. It was the first deposit from Belgium. 


Click on each project’s image below to explore each project individually.

 

SEA WALLS & MANGROVES

Sinking Islands in the Pacific on the frontline of Global Warming

WHITEOUT

PACIFIC PROJECT (coming soon)

The ongoing Pacific Ocean Project focuses on climate change and global warming, and how vulnerable islands adapt to this crucial problem. I interviewed prime ministers, the president of Kiribati and Marshall Islands, corporations, Non-Governmental Organizations, Universities and private citizens. 

I have documented New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Solomon islands, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Palau, Nauru, Tonga, Samoa, French Polynesia, Lord Howe Island, Easter Island, Fiji, Hawaii, Robinson Crusoe Island, Federal States of Micronesia, Republic of the Marshall Islands.

As a Climate Pact Ambassador of the European Union, it is my pledge to raise awareness, to place the Pacific region on the agenda because this region is often forgotten. The region is impacted by the consequences of global warming like no other (Pacific Islanders contribute less than 0,03% to global Warming). Global Warming forces islanders to build seawalls to protect themselves against overwash and floods.

WHITEOUT

WHITEOUT is an art project comprising a collection of 28 photographs focussing on the polar regions, as well as 26 poems, songs and insights written by the indigenous Peoples of the Arctic, in particular the Sámi and Inuit. The art book consists of a maximum printing of 250 copies, each individually numbered and signed by the poet and the photographer. All photos are for sale.

WHITEOUT is a tribute to the polar regions of our planet, in which the serenity, silence and splendour of this unique but endangered region are expressed. This project provides a unique look into the world of these remarkable semi-nomadic peoples.

In the WHITEOUT-series, one can experience a poetic silence in every image, a filled emptiness of essence and experience. With this project, I searched for the boundaries of the visible.

THE FRENCH SOUTHERN AND ANTARCTIC LANDS

Wild & Untouched

TERRES AUSTRALES ET ANTARCTIQUES FRANCAISES

In 2019, I joined the French government’s scientific vessel Marion Dufresne, which supplies the scientists and researchers stationed on the French Southern and Antarctic Lands (Terres Australes et Antarctiques Françaises, or ‘TAAF’), with food, equipment and all of life’s necessities.

Spending three weeks on a turbulent ocean with scientists allowed me to become integrated in the working schedule of the mission. It was a true privilege to be able to witness the beauty of these unique, fragile ecosystems, which are among the most difficult in the world to reach.

The French Southern Lands and Seas, with their unique biodiversity and threatened species, host some of the world’s largest concentrations and diversity of birds and marine mammals.

With my camera as my witness, I capture and preserve a moment in time of these vast beautiful territories. I seek to give these remote islands and seas a semblance of permanence, and to understand the threat of climate change and other man-made impacts on their environment.

WAVES

click here to see the oceans

WAVES

Having navigated the five oceans in pursuit of my passion to document their beauty, I decided to dedicate my first hardcover book to the essence of life itself: water.

WAVES is a project consisting of 24 art photos as well as a high quality limited edition book. This art book is a symbiosis between photography and poetry and consists of a maximum printing of 250 copies, each individually numbered and signed by the poet and the photographer. All photos are for sale.

A SOUTH ATLANTIC ODYSSEY

Into the Big Blue

A SOUTH ATLANTIC ODYSSEY

On this five-week expedition in 2018, I crossed the South Atlantic Ocean by ship, from the southernmost city of the world Ushuaia (Patagonia, Argentina) to Cape Verde Islands. I spent weeks on the open ocean, visited the most remote islands in the world and experienced stunning wildlife and beautiful fauna and flora.

This odyssey reveals the untouched beauty of our fragile planet.

In my quest, I try to enter an unknown world. It is a search for the pristine, exploring the unknown corners of our planet, untouched by man. I try to take pictures with my soul, so that every picture says something deep about life, nature and about ourselves. 

ANTARCTICA

the Frozen Continent

ANTARCTICA

In 2017, I participated in a semi-circumnavigation around the Antarctic continent, witnessing unique remote and rarely seen places, phenomena and wildlife, such as penguins, whales, albatrosses, orca, etc. Five weeks long on the turbulent Southern Ocean, from Bluff, New Zealand, to Ushuaia, Argentina. I visited five scientific stations and four huts of the famous British explorers Ernest Shackleton and Robert Falcon Scott, as well as the hut of the Norwegian explorer Borchgrevink, using helicopters and zodiacs.

Only few man ever visited the Dry Valleys, only accessible by helicopter after the ship is stationed in the pack ice. The Dry Valleys are the coldest and driest deserts on earth. Robert Falcon Scott, who discovered them in 1903, named them “valleys of death”. What he did not know is that even there, some life is present, be it mostly a microscopic one. The presence of seal mummies is still a mystery, it is unknown why some of these animals moved inland, just to die.

ARCTIC

Whites and Blues

ARCTIC

For centuries the poles symbolized a pure, untouched world. A world hostile to humans, with temperatures well below zero. Unknown, vast, inhospitable areas which killed many polar explorers and researchers.

Today, the poles are a symbol of global warming. Despite their immense surface, their vulnerability is at the forefront of the crisis. Any increase in temperature by a fraction of a degree has an enormous impact on the ice masses, glaciers and the animals that inhabit these areas.

INSIDE THE GLOBAL

SEED VAULT

Food Genetics for future generations

SVALBARD GLOBAL SEED VAULT

In a barren, cold and secluded spot, only 1,000 km (620 miles) from the North Pole, a bunker was drilled deep into the rocks near Longyearbyen by the Norwegian government in Spitsbergen in 2008: a 130 meter long tunnel that opens onto three spacious freezers with a temperature of -18° C (0.4°F).

Here, the seeds of all crops in the world are collected to protect them against all types of disasters, to prevent species from extinction. A safety vault for the protection of the biodiversity of our food crops.

Currently 1,081,026 different plant seeds are stored. The bunker has a total capacity to safeguard 4.5 million varieties. The biggest advantage of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault is its unique location, far from potential disaster such as earthquakes and wars, protected deep in the permafrost.
After eight months of networking, I was finally permitted to enter the Vault. 

 

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