Thursday, November 3, 2016

''Parfois une image vaut mieux que mille mots'' - [Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words] FRENCH NEWS REPORT on "The Madonna of Global Warming"

Parfois une image vaut mieux que mille mots

Par Dan Bloom

(Dan Bloom est un journaliste américain qui vit à Taiwan et édite le « Cli-Fi Report » : www.cli-fi.net)

SEE ORIGINAL PHOTOS BY YANN QUERO OF ''THE MADONNA OF GLOBAL WARMING'' HERE:

 
The original article in French appears now in M@nuscrit n°22.
See the PDF link below:


FRANCE -- Pour le romancier Yann Quero, passer à côté d’une statue de la Vierge à la façade d’une église dans l’ouest de la France voilà plusieurs années a été un choc, principalement parce que la statue située dans une alcôve sur la face de l’église captiva son imagination d’écrivain. Il en pris alors des photos, mais ne sachant encore qu’en faire, ne les montra à personne.


Yann Quero

Tout changea le mois dernier, le 10 octobre 2016, lorsque je contactais par mail des auteurs autour du globe, à la recherche de photos pouvant représenter l’essence du changement climatique de manière iconique.

Quelques heures plus tard, je reçus un message de Yann Quero, un auteur français de romans et de nouvelles renommé, avec une photo et un titre : « La Madone du réchauffement climatique ». Regardez attentivement et vous verrez comment l’air de l’océan Atlantique tout proche a transformé ce qui a été autrefois une statue finement ciselée en un fantomatique amas dévoré par les vers, comme un avertissement au monde.

La légende que Yann Quero avait fourni pour la photo était : « Si nous ne faisons rien, alors il n’y aura plus d’espoir… » En recevant cette photo, sans connaître son histoire, je fus naturellement curieux et intrigué, voulant en savoir plus à son sujet et comment il l’avait trouvé. Je lui écrivis donc en retour pour lui demander plus d’informations. Où se trouvait l’église ? Qui avait pris la photo et quand ? S’il y avait un copyright ? Si la statue avait été façonnée dans du corail mort et placée là en parodie de la Vierge Marie ?

« La statue n’a pas été faite en corail, mais en pierre de taille », me répondit-il. « Elle a été rongée par les éléments parce qu’elle était placée sur le fronton d’une église à Lorient, non loin de l’océan, en Bretagne. J’ai pris cette photo en 2011, mais je ne l’avais jamais montrée auparavant ».

Yann Quero ajouta  « J’ai aussi fait un gros plan [qu’il joignit à son second message]. Les deux photos peuvent être utilisées. La première constitue probablement une image plus forte, dans la mesure où on voit aussi la croix audessus de l’église, mais la seconde montre de manière plus nette les dommages causés par les éléments. Et ça pourrait être une bonne idée de mettre à côté la représentation d’une statue non endommagée, pour montrer au public à quoi l’original avait pu ressembler des années auparavant. »



Des photos iconiques comme celles-ci pourraient vraiment aider à communiquer sur les dangers et les risques du réchauffement climatique en jouant sur l’émotion. De telles images révèlent que le monde a besoin de prendre conscience du réchauffement. Si les médias sont capables de présenter plus d’histoires accompagnées de photos, comme celles que Yann Quero a prises dans l’ouest de la France, alors les gens pourront réfléchir à ces questions de manière plus humaine, et pourquoi pas aussi religieuse. Une personne à qui j’ai montré ces photos à Taiwan m’a dit : « En voyant cette Madone rongée par les éléments, cela me hérisse les cheveux sur la tête, en songeant aux effets et implications du réchauffement climatique. C’est incroyable. Je me demande quand l’humanité sera capable de se comporter de manière plus responsable envers la Terre. Nous devons coopérer et prendre des mesures maintenant pour nous sauver avant qu’il ne soit trop tard. Le réchauffement climatique est un fait avéré face auquel nous ne pouvons rester aveugle. Ces photos sont glaçantes ».

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English translation: 

附件10月28日 (7 天前)
回覆
寄給
 




​​Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words

by Dan Bloom

​TAIPEI -- For French novelist and storyteller Yann Quero, coming across a church in northern France in 2011 where a weather beaten statue of the Virgin Mary was a starting event, mostly because the limestone statue standing on a perch on the outside church walls captivated his writer's imagination. So he took a photo and sat on it for several years, never showing it to anyone except a few friends in private. But all that changed last month when Quero sent a copy of the photo to this reporter and calling it "The Madonna of Global Warming." Look closely and you will see how the ocean air of the nearby Atlantic ocean has over the years turned the once-smooth limestone statue into what looks now like a ghostly, worm-eaten warning to the world. Quero said he wrote a caption for the photo: ​"If we do nothing, there will be no more hope..."
 

 

 
PHOTO CREDIT: Yann Quero
​Photo: Yann Quero

 

 

When I received the photograph by email, I was naturally curious and intrigued to know more about it and how Quero had found it. ​I wrote back to the author and asked fhim or more information and background details about the statue in the photograph: where the church was, in what country, who took the photo, was there a copyright, was the statue perhaps created from dead coral from a coral reef and then placed in the church as a statue of the Virgin Mary, and then , when was the photo taken?


 

 
"The statue was not made of coral but of regular limestone
​," Quero told IPS. ​
​"​
It was gnawed by the elements as it is on the pediment of a church located in Lorient, not far from the ocean, in French Britanny."
 
Quero, who is  a novelist and a short story writer of international repute, added:
​​ ''I took this picture in 2011, but I never showed it before.​ ​I also have a close-up of the statue [which he attached; see here]. They may both be used. The first is probably a stronger image for the caption of the picture because of the cross above the church, but the second shows more cleary the damage to it by the elements in close-up.
And it could indeed be a good idea to show readers a non-deteriorated statue [see here] just to show viewers what the original might have looked like, long ago."








 

​ CLOSE UP PHOTO, courtest Yann Quero​
 
 





 
​ A similar statue at another church in central France without any damagge to it​

 
 
 
 
​Iconic photographs such as this one ​might help communicate the dangers and risks of global warming to ordinary people in a powerful, emotional way, Quero said, adding that such pictures prove that the world needs to be more aware of global warming. If media outlets
​c​
an produce more photo stories about global warming, with a picture like the one he took in northern France, more people worldwide will be able to think about these things in a human, even religious way.



One person I showed this photo to in Taiwan told me: "Seeing that weather-worn Madonna photo about global warming effects and implications makes my hair stand on neck. It's unbelievable. I  wonder when humankind can behave more responsibly for our Earth. We need to cooperate and take action immediately to save ourselves before it becomes too late. Global warming is a fact that we cannot have blind eyes to. This photo is chilling."



We shouldn't get too comfortable with the concept of global warming, Quero believes
​, and that's why he is making his photo public now.​



​It's true, ​t
here's no point in terrifying the public with images of a kind of looming, inevitable apocalypse, according to most climate risk communicators. Instilling fear is no way to get
​things
done, they say. But as the world after the
​2015 ​
Paris
​climate
accords
​relaxes and ​
gets more complacent, maybe a photo like the one Quero snapped five years ago could serve as
​a useful
wake-up call to inspire us to work harder to avoid any potentially disastrous fate.


附件10月28日 (7 天前)
回覆
 
 




​​Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words

by Dan Bloom

​TAIPEI -- For French novelist and storyteller Yann Quero, coming across a church in northern France in 2011 where a weather beaten statue of the Virgin Mary was a starting event, mostly because the limestone statue standing on a perch on the outside church walls captivated his writer's imagination. So he took a photo and sat on it for several years, never showing it to anyone except a few friends in private. But all that changed last month when Quero sent a copy of the photo to this reporter and calling it "The Madonna of Global Warming." Look closely and you will see how the ocean air of the nearby Atlantic ocean has over the years turned the once-smooth limestone statue into what looks now like a ghostly, worm-eaten warning to the world. Quero said he wrote a caption for the photo: ​"If we do nothing, there will be no more hope..."
 

 

 
PHOTO CREDIT: Yann Quero


​Photo: Yann Quero
 
 

When I received the photograph by email, I was naturally curious and intrigued to know more about it and how Quero had found it. ​I wrote back to the author and asked fhim or more information and background details about the statue in the photograph: where the church was, in what country, who took the photo, was there a copyright, was the statue perhaps created from dead coral from a coral reef and then placed in the church as a statue of the Virgin Mary, and then , when was the photo taken?


 

 
"The statue was not made of coral but of regular limestone
​," Quero told IPS. ​

​"​
It was gnawed by the elements as it is on the pediment of a church located in Lorient, not far from the ocean, in French Britanny."
 
Quero, who is  a novelist and a short story writer of international repute, added:
​​ ''I took this picture in 2011, but I never showed it before.​ ​I also have a close-up of the statue [which he attached; see here]. They may both be used. The first is probably a stronger image for the caption of the picture because of the cross above the church, but the second shows more cleary the damage to it by the elements in close-up.
And it could indeed be a good idea to show readers a non-deteriorated statue [see here] just to show viewers what the original might have looked like, long ago."









 

​ CLOSE UP PHOTO, courtest Yann Quero​
 
 





 

​ A similar statue at another church in central France without any damagge to it​
 
 
 
 

​Iconic photographs such as this one ​might help communicate the dangers and risks of global warming to ordinary people in a powerful, emotional way, Quero said, adding that such pictures prove that the world needs to be more aware of global warming. If media outlets
​c​
an produce more photo stories about global warming, with a picture like the one he took in northern France, more people worldwide will be able to think about these things in a human, even religious way.



One person I showed this photo to in Taiwan told me: "Seeing that weather-worn Madonna photo about global warming effects and implications makes my hair stand on neck. It's unbelievable. I  wonder when humankind can behave more responsibly for our Earth. We need to cooperate and take action immediately to save ourselves before it becomes too late. Global warming is a fact that we cannot have blind eyes to. This photo is chilling."




We shouldn't get too comfortable with the concept of global warming, Quero believes
​, and that's why he is making his photo public now.​



​It's true, ​t
here's no point in terrifying the public with images of a kind of looming, inevitable apocalypse, according to most climate risk communicators. Instilling fear is no way to get
​things
done, they say. But as the world after the
​2015 ​
Paris
​climate
accords
​relaxes and ​
gets more complacent, maybe a photo like the one Quero snapped five years ago could serve as
​a useful
wake-up call to inspire us to work harder to avoid any potentially disastrous fate.


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