Winter Majesty

Sumptuous Dents du Midi, an illustrious massif of seven summits peaking at over 3000 metres above the Swiss Valais. The first foothills of the Alps, the mountains stand like an impenetrable wall protecting the valley. I took this beautiful photograph of the massif from the famous ski resort of Villars-sur-Ollon. The best vantage point from which to admire Dents du Midi is in the canton of Vaud.

Opposite us, the Cime de l'Est revives its black-and-white mantle in the warmth of the first rays of sunshine. Its ridge leads our gaze to the Forteresse, at summit . Behind it stands the Cathedral. All evocative names given to the mountains long ago, a tribute to their enormous scale and inaccessible beauty. At the foot of summits, on the Tête de Chalin, can you make out the refuge built at an altitude of 2595 metres? Like a drop lost in the middle of the ocean, this precious visual landmark helps us to perceive the vertiginous dimension of the colossi that surround it.

This work was created in winter. Just out of the storm, the first rays of sunlight caress the freshly snow-covered Dents du Midi . The mountains make me dream and imagine them adventurous. Proud and combative. If the massif were a ship, the Cime de l'Est would be its prow, vigorously battling the waves and glaciers. In this photograph, I wanted to highlight the grandeur of these exceptional summits through a play of light and shadow. The contrasts of winter, both soft and deep, exacerbate the verticality of the walls, offering the eye the raw, majestic personality of these legendary mountains.