Communion with Whales

Discover The Rapture of Whales and support this exceptional book project from photographers Éric lamblin and Guillaume Boeye

For 15 years, they have approached these aquatic dancers who are constantly moving us, who defy the laws of gravity with their lightness and embody the mystery of the depths they sublimate with their grace. You will be captivated by the show of their tender and expressive choreographies.
This book reveals the best of hundreds of sea trips, with thousands of pictures taken.

Available  in April 2019.
120 pages, size 24 x 32 cm, bound hardback, 60 images. 49 € TTC. Excluding freight costs.

Preface: Laurent Ballesta.

Production: Hemeria & printmodel® (also producers of Laurent Ballesta’s books).

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The project “In The Privacy of Whales”

The humpback whale is a symbol of the struggle for the preservation of animal species. The challenge is to protect them throughout their migration journey.

Reunion Island has been working for 5 years to make the “Whale Trail” a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Their migration route runs from November to June. From November to the end of April, these giants live in Antarctica and feed on small fish and shrimps. Then, once fed, humpback whales travel 5000 km in a month from Antarctica to find the warm waters of the Indian Ocean. This is where they breed and give birth.

Guillaume Boeye and Éric Lamblin plunged to seize the intimacy of these moments of life of which we are the privileged witnesses. The book is a fascinating panorama of whales, at any age of their life, with family or swimming in harmony with dolphins or cachalots.

Their photographies give as much to see the tender and moving relationship of a whale protecting her child from her imposing body as much as the game of juvenile whales whose peculiarity is to be very playful and curious: solitary, they are also often the first ones to arrive.

We then witness the magic of their lightness and grace. Before our eyes, it’s a dance, a choreography of the link, of their delicacy. These intimate moments are probably expressed since the dawn of time, but they still keep a mystery that subjugates us.

The book is designed as an immersion amazed by the beauty and serenity of the whales. From the surface of the water, they drag us with them into the depths, where the blue is denser. A silent world only disturbed by the sound of whales singing. A peaceful night unveiled for those who do not dive, an access to a world we do not see.

This book is meant as an aesthetic journey in the form of homage. As the promise of a reconciliation with wildlife, this book is a respectful look at the ocean that invites to appeasement.

At the end of the book, an 8-page notebook tells the genesis of the project and the conditions for its realization in the form of a making-of, printed on a high quality mat coated paper.

A preface by Laurent Ballesta

Éric Lamblin and Guillaume Boeye have a prestigious sponsor. Laurent Ballesta is now a reference personality in the world of scuba diving and exploration of its funds. His exemplary career earned him to be considered one of the major players of his generation in the field. His expertise and his role in the best knowledge of marine animals are no longer debated.

Who are the photographers?

Guillaume Boeye (www.zoocean.com) was born in Toulouse in 1971. He left the city and his professional career in finance in 2001 to settle on the island of Reunion. He became a paragliding instructor and quickly became passionate about diving and underwater photography. Since 2004, he devotes most of his free time to meeting cetaceans, camera in hand to immortalize these exceptional encounters in the Indian Ocean.

From the Nikkormat offered by his father to today, Éric Lamblin nicknamed Crackoi (www.crackoi.com) has always had a camera in his hand. On the water or under water, he has never moved away from the sea to practice sailing, surfing, diving, snorkeling …

Éric Lamblin and Guillaume Boeye naturally met underwater, photographing the same whale in the bay of Saint-Leu. From this encounter by chance encounter, hundreds of outings, thousands of hours shared at sea, will be born. They dive in apnea, a technique of approach adapted to the respect of the integrity of the humpback whales, emblematic of a world still wild and unknown.

An ambitious project

The book is part of a more global approach to talk about whales. Conferences, exhibitions and articles will be the natural relay to go further in the knowledge of whales by general public.

Fine art photographies will be presented as part of major festivals dedicated to nature photography.

What will the funding be used for: the choice for quality

The selection of images favors quality rather than quantity. Éric Lamblin and Guillaume Boeye chose the 60 photographs that make up the book among thousands of hours of diving photography.

To sublimate the beauty of this show, the production of the book was entrusted to Hemeria / printmodel®, which manages the production of the works of other explorers of the depths or terrestrial surfaces: Laurent Ballesta and Vincent Munier.

The funds raised will be used to finance a high-end production of the book, that is to say the purchase of paper, printing and bookbinding costs and the artistic design of the book.

All of these choices – manufacturing, art direction, staging of images – are dictated by the search for exceptional quality to make this book a singular object, far beyond a simple book of photographs.

A large format, a Swiss binding to open the book completely flat and facilitate reading, a high white 200g matt coated paper (Arctic Volume High White), from the paper manufacturer Arctic Paper, a printing that uses unique color profiles, developed by printmodel® with its partners in printing.

All the materials used are labeled FSC and PEFC. The book is made in France.

The campaign is carried out by Hemeria, associated with printmodel®, to stay in a virtuous cycle dedicated to photographers. Hemeria’s role is to promote independent photographers and help them produce their books while accessing this exceptional quality of reproduction of their images.

The book is available in French and English, to reach an international audience of lovers of the underwater world.

For each book bought online, a tree is planted, thanks to the partnership established by Hemeria with reforest’ACTION®, a social enterprise created in 2010, specialist in reforestation in France and in the World.

The campaign target has been set at € 20000. Photographers know that they will be able to count on the generosity of the donors, on their interest in this extraordinary human adventure to exceed the objectives of the subscription and make this book also theirs. We know that every diver dreams one day to approach the whales … The amount necessary to guarantee this excellence is actually a budget of 28000 € to produce 2000 copies.

If we exceed 28000 €, we can add 8 pages to the book with additional unpublished photographs.

“The man is never as big as in his face-to-face with the sea.
Because it is immoderate, the sea is transcendence.”
The sea, future of the earth. Christian Buchet.

All prices are inclusive of VAT. For options 7 and 8, 5 images extracted from the book will be proposed so that the subscriber can choose among one of them to have his numbered print run.

NB: the title of the book and the cover are provisional.

Rewards

Postal Cards (25€ and more rewards)

8 original postcards format 15 cm x 21 cm on Invercote Creato Digital FSC mixed credit 260g paper.. The choice of the series of 8 images will be made by Éric and Guillaume, and it will be unpublished images that will be printed to make these 15 cm x 21 cm cards. So they will not be in the book.

Fine Art Print (350€ and more rewards)

For 350€ and more : you receive the signed book with a Fine Art print format 40 cm x 60 cm. Single print run all formats all media all formats to 30 copies numbered and signed by the author. This possibility is therefore limited to 60 subscribers. 5 images extracted from the book will be proposed so that the subscriber can choose among one of them to have his numbered print run.

For 1000€ and more : The book In the intimacy of whales signed, as well as an original art print on matte paper laminated on Dibond, format 70 cm x 110 cm. Single print run all formats all media all formats at 10 copies numbered and signed. This possibility is therefore limited to 20 subscribers (10 subscriptions per photographer). It will be proposed 5 images extracted from the book so that the subscriber can choose among one of them to have his numbered print made.

For these 2 rewards, all subscribers will have their names listed on the acknowledgement page at the end of the book.