InVivo and Géraldine Aresteanu offer you an insight into the everyday life of French farmers

InVivo and Géraldine Aresteanu offer you an insight into the everyday life of French farmers

They maintain our countryside, shape our landscapes and produce our food. And yet we know so little about them. Who are the men and women who feed us? How do they live? Where do they work? What are their aspirations?

At a time when agriculture is at the heart of many of society’s debates, the photographer Géraldine Aresteanu and the InVivo Group have joined forces to shed light on the reality of being a farmer. Agriculteur le jour et la nuit project is centred around a dozen or so photo documentaries showing 24 hours in the life of a livestock breeder, market gardener, cereal grower, winegrower and oyster farmer, among others.

24 hours in the life of a farmer  

24 hours is a photographic project created by Géraldine Aresteanu. She sees this format as ‘ideal for really entering into everyday life and living moments of a different intensity’. A perfect format for seeing the real life of farmers, for whose work usually does not stop in the evening. When you’re a farmer, it’s non-stop agriculture, night and day…

For Géraldine Aresteanu: ‘You have to get really close to people, without being a voyeur or just an observer. When I photograph my models, I take time to share ideas with them and learn about their background. This human interaction is essential if I am to bring out their personality.’

Bruno Guénin, a farmer in Haute-Marne, was the first to open his door to Géraldine Aresteanu, last February. Clément Lajoux welcomed her to his farm near Arles during a heatwave. They will be followed by another ten or so farmers from many other regions of France.

Reminding us of the link between Earth, humanity, those who cultivate and those who feed from it

By supporting this initiative, InVivo wishes to draw everyone’s attention to those who exercise the oldest and most fundamental function of all: providing nourishment.

Agriculteur le jour et la nuit highlights the many faces of tis agriculture in motion, stamped by hard work, sobriety, rigour, innovation and awareness of the environment. Thierry Blandinières, CEO of the InVivo Group, sees this diversity as the heart of the project: ‘The diversity of French agriculture is a unique source of abundance. Whether it is conventional, precision, sustainable, responsible, peasant, organic, agro-ecological or other. Contrasting different types of agriculture, as is too often done, means ignoring the (often difficult) realities and disregarding the changes taking place in the world of agriculture.’

Géraldine Aresteanu, a committed photographer

Géraldine Aresteanu was born in 1976 in Romania, to a French mother and Romanian father. In 1995 she went to study in France and in 2003 founded the Salez/Poivrez agency with a graphic designer friend. For 11 years, they combined their talents in the service of subjects and people that were dear to their hearts and that they helped make visible.

Since 2014, she has been working on the ‘24 hours’ project: for 24 hours, she shares and photographs the everyday life of an individual, be that person anonymous or famous. Driven by her interest in other people and her human engagement, she alternates documentary photography and portraits, personal projects and commissions from companies and institutions.

Agriculteur le jour et la nuit, by constance