For Olivier Grünewald, a member of the Société des Explorateurs Français, photographing is both a goal and a pretext to immerse yourself at the heart of the forces of creation and approach the beauties of the world. But beyond personal adventure, the image is above all a way for him to marvel, to raise awareness, to make known, to alert.
For more than thirty five years, Olivier, photographer, and also director, has been travelling around the World to produce reports, books or documentaries on the beauties of our planet and the women and men who study or act for the conservation of our common heritage.
After training in advertising photography, Olivier began his career as a climbing and mountaineering photographer. After a few years, suspended from ropes in the walls to follow the evolutions of high-level athletes, he returns to his first loves, nature, the great spaces.
He then began a work on landscapes in the large format chamber in the tradition of American photography. He travelled for several years, American West, Australia and Iceland.
His encounter with the volcanoes and the northern lights will mark a turning point and Olivier then invested in the photography of these fascinating phenomena.
During a volcanic mission in northern Ethiopia, he participated in the rediscovery of the Dalol hydrothermal site. Seeing to start mining projects around this unique site Olivier has since 2008 undertaken to value it with the help of scientists and the IRIS Foundation to try to have it classified to the Unesco heritage.
Together with his journalist, Bernadette Gilbertas, they publish articles on scientific missions and the actions of people involved in the preservation of natural or heritage resources. They are authors of more than 15 books, the last of which, ORIGINS leads us into the history of our planet, from the original Chaos to the emergence of the Earth's vis.
Four times winner of the prestigious World Press Photo, Olivier collaborates with National Geographic, Stern, Geo, El Pais, Le Figaro Magazine, Sunday Times... He is also a director of documentaries including, « Aurores Boréales, the great meeting », a poetic and scientific immersion to immerse the spectator in the heart of the northern lights.
