The power of an image can be far reaching. A story can be told—or a message delivered— in even a single photograph.

And when a space is filled with images that have a common theme, the story becomes exponentially compelling.

This is the impact of photographer Philippe Chancel’s series “Datazone”—photographs made in remote and diverse corners of the world to reveal realities that we don’t ordinarily see. The interwoven essence becomes increasingly clear.

This series of images delivers the disturbing message that our planet and its inhabitants are in trouble.

Chancel is adept at crossing cultures to reveal the signs and symptoms of what Datazone Curator Michel Poivert calls a world in decline. “The world is screaming,” Poivert says. And we have to take notice.

“Datazone” at the Rencontres d’Arles

The Datazone exhibit was one of the highlights of the 2019 Rencontres d’Arles photography festival. The images filled the cathedral-like Église des Frères Prêcheurs. The 16^th century gothic space lent a symbolic importance to the visual storytelling.

Directional lines on the floor led to each of the countries represented, reminding us that the world’s problems are not isolated to a few “hot zones.” We are surrounded by turmoil.

Chancel’s sensitive and thoughtful explorations from the past 15 years show us brutal dictatorships, environmental tragedies, the effects of climate change, war, natural disasters, and the dehumanizing effects of modernization.

The Datazone exhibit includes 14 different sites, from Fukushima to Haiti, from Marseilles to Nigeria, from North Korea to Afghanistan, from Antarctica to the United Arab Emirates, from the West Bank in Israel to the Greece/Macedonia border. From Kazakhstan to South Africa. From the U.S. (Flint, Michigan) to India (Mumbai).

The places were chosen by Chancel as areas in peril. They became part of his journey perhaps because of a specific disaster or social or political event. But they were often selected because the issues were off the main media’s radar or were insidious growths, moving slowly toward danger.

Moments of Truth

Once on site, Chancel chooses his photographic moments carefully. No clichés. No staging. No special effects. Just reality, which is sometimes subtle and sometimes dramatically direct. He shows us hidden truths.

In many scenes, Chancel shows us the future conjoined to the past. Skyscrapers mixed with barren desert land. Opulence and poverty in close proximity. High speed roads alongside well-trodden paths. Natural beauty overtaken by industrial disaster.

Chancel shows us not just the effects of war, but the change in life as a result of years of war. We are shown the compounds, surrounded by barbed wire, built to protect the rich warlords from attack . . . and the mercenaries who guard the concrete structures with Kalashnikovs.

He shows us the aftermath of natural disasters, such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake and the 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear reactor tragedy of the Tohoku region of Japan.

The photographs are not the immediate headline-grabbing scenes, but images that tell of the long struggles and hardships that follow such tragedies for years.

He unveils the theater of a dictatorship that requires blind loyalty and enthusiastic support, as well as the growing international tendency to create border barricades to prevent the influx of refugees.

In several series, he shows us how the pristine beauty of many places on earth is in jeopardy and how once thriving ecosystems have been destroyed.

We see the oil seeping into the life of the people of the Niger Delta from fractured pipelines, threatening the very existence of the farmers and fishermen of the area.

And we sense the melting ice of Antarctica, once described by explorer Charcot as “a vast, magnificent city made from the purest marble”—a dream that he would like to keep dreaming. That collection of “towering amphitheaters and temples built by divine architects” is melting. Yes. Climate change is very real.

Oh I See: A Wake-Up Call to the Planet

When Chancel’s images are taken as a whole collective—crossing cultures on so many continents—the future seems all too clear. This is a wake-up call to the world. The only question that remains is what shall we do . . .