Frozen Peak

Appearance of the Aiguille des Deux Aigles from the heights of Chamonix, France. While the mountains of the Mont-Blanc massif display their feminine curves, the impressively vertical Aiguilles de Chamonix soar skyward. Inspiring, they challenge mountaineers from all over the world to come and face them. The quality of their flamboyantly coloured granite is world-renowned.

In winter, I wait for the magic moment when, after a heavy storm, they turn white. But I have to be patient, because the show only happens once or twice a year. But when the curtain of clouds opens on the Aiguilles de Chamonix , whose frosted tips seem to pierce the sky, my emotions are at their peak. All that's left for me to do then is to immortalize the extreme beauty of the high mountains, pure and inordinate. On this day in 2018, I waited several hours before catching sight of the Aiguille des Deux Aigles, engulfed by the elements. Until the moment it emerged from the mist to soar into the sky. A moment of grace, ephemeral but forever engraved in my work.

This vertical photograph of the Aiguille des Deux Aigles is different from my other shots, in which black and white transcribe the subtle interplay of light and shadow. In this work, white reigns supreme. The slightly bluish monochrome emphasizes the bewitching, mysterious splendor of this blade of ice, which reveals its beauty to us, the better to touch the sky. Glittering and proud, the mountain reflects the light like a sword freed from its scabbard, shining with a thousand lights before hitting the bull's-eye.