Franck Desplanques and Stéphanie Jacquet's 'Austral, les engagés pour l'Océan' at Quai de la Photo

From April 27 to June 5, 2026, Quai de la Photo in Paris presents 'Austral, les engagés pour l'Océan', a photographic essay by Franck Desplanques and Stéphanie Jacquet. The exhibition documents an oceanographic mission in the Southern Ocean aboard the research vessel Marion Dufresne, off the French Southern and Antarctic Lands. Jacquet, an oceanographer at CNRS and the Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography, collaborated with Desplanques, a photographer and documentary author, to make visible the invisible processes of the ocean—biogeochemical cycles, carbon circulation, phytoplankton dynamics—that regulate climate and absorb CO2. The photographs employ a visual style inspired by electron microscopy, oscillating between black-and-white and color, positive and negative. Some images are altered by chemicals used in scientific protocols, integrating research materials into the artistic process. The work was supported by CNRS and Ifremer. The exhibition runs in two phases: on the main deck and exhibition hall from April 27 to May 2, then on the main deck only from May 5 to June 5.