On his website, Hans Silvester does not show everything.
Sixty years of photography cannot fit onto a few pages: one must choose, suggest, distill. A few images then appear full-screen, almost bare, without commentary, gathered into small, secret constellations.
Then they are gone.
Nothing here is fixed: beauty is nomadic, photographs have their moods, and surprise is part of the journey. If you love beauty, photography — and being surprised — you have to come back, Often… Photos would have been changed !
About Hans SILVESTER
Born in 1938 in Lörrach, Germany, Hans Silvester developed an early passion for photography. In 1960, he arrived in the Camargue, where he achieved his first major success with a photographic report on horses, accompanied by texts by Jean Giono. Deeply attached to the region, he subsequently settled in Provence.
From this period onward, he built a body of work shaped by travel and close observation of the world. In 1965, he joined the Rapho agency as a photojournalist, and in 1977 he produced the cover of the inaugural issue of Géo magazine. His photography is distinguished by the precision of his gaze and his ability to capture images of great authenticity.
Throughout his career, Hans Silvester assembled a vast and coherent body of work, immediately recognizable by its visual signature. He photographed landscapes, everyday life, animals and local traditions across many countries, consistently focusing on the relationship between human beings and their environment.
From the 1980s onward, his work took on a strong environmental dimension. He produced reports on Europe’s natural parks, exposed the consequences of deforestation in the Amazon, devoted a long-term project to the Calavon River in Provence, and investigated forest exploitation in North America. Since the early 2000s, he has carried out extensive work in southern Ethiopia, documenting the peoples of the Omo Valley and surrounding mountain regions.
The documentary and aesthetic strength of his images has earned him international recognition. His work has been exhibited in major museums and galleries and featured in photography festivals worldwide. In December 2022, Hans Silvester was awarded the Albert Kahn Planet International Prize for his entire career, honoring more than sixty years of photography. Based on time, immersion and observation, his work stands as a major testimony to the relationships between humanity, nature and cultures around the world.
