Daniel Chatard

This Saturday, I will present photographs from my recently started project ‚European Prospects‘ for the first time during an artist talk at the ‚BildBotschaft’ exhibition of @laiffoundation and I’m already excited now. If you’re in Hamburg, I‘d love to see you there! The entry is free. 🗓️ Sat. 06.12.2025, 5pm 📍 BildBotschaft Hamburg, Mönckebergstraße 3

NEW RELEASE Niemandsland (Daniel Chatard) Niemandsland investigates the impact of brown coal extraction in Germany’s Rhineland, where some of Europe’s largest open-cast lignite mines have dramatically altered the landscape and contributed heavily to CO2 emissions. These mines have displaced entire villages, causing a sense of powerlessness among residents who grew up knowing that their homes would one day be destroyed. In 2012, environmental activists occupied Hambach Forest. Despite some success in preserving parts of the forest and five villages, a sixth village, Lützerath, was demolished. By engaging with the affected communities, @daniel_chatard (DE) shows the emotional and physical toll of the mining operations. A reminder of the costs of energy production and the enduring human spirit in the face of overwhelming odds. Daniel's story 'No Mans's Land (Niemandsland) is awarded in the 2024 @worldpressphoto contest. Order your copy now 📚 Design: @carelfransen Lithography: @marcgijzen Production: @wilco_artbooks #niemandsland #danielchatard #browncoalmine #braunkohle #lignite #opencastmine #hambachforest #hambacherforst #environment #protest #bookdesign #photobooks

L’autoroute A40, qui dessert les grandes villes de la Ruhr, dans l’ouest de l’Allemagne, ne fait pas que diviser géographiquement la région, elle sépare aussi ceux qui y vivent. Une ségrégation à laquelle les sociologues ont donné un nom : « l’équateur des inégalités ». Sur fond de montée de l’extrême droite, le photographe @daniel_chatard l’a arpentée en long et en large. Ses photos sont à retrouver dans le dernier numéro de Society.

For a recent article in @zeit I went back to school - more precisely to Gesamtschule Alter Teichweg in Hamburg‘s east, where phones will be completely banned from the beginning of the next school year. ‚The phone is their heart, their body, their everything‘, says principle Björn Lengwenus. He hopes the ban will bring back more real social interaction. Text: Jeanette Otto Photo Editors: @noraschwarz_ & @jasminahanf

Had the chance to come visit Dhaka last week during @chobimela where I exhibited ‚Niemandsland‘. Thanks to everyone who helped make this festival happen in uncertain times, showed me around, invited me to their homes and so much more. And of course thanks @sarkerprotick and @munemwasif for inviting me. It was an intense and beautiful time.

Some local European Prospects from Hamburg. Hope you‘ve had a good start into the year!

Germany is Europe’s largest economy. Though it positions itself as a leader in the transition to renewable energy by 2030, it remains one of Europe's top greenhouse gas emitters. In 2024, Germany accounted for 46% of the EU’s lignite coal consumption and 23% of its hard coal consumption. The Hambach and Garzweiler open-cast mines in North Rhine-Westphalia extract lignite, which emits about 30% more CO2 than hard coal. Since the 1940s, these mines have destroyed some 50 villages, forests, and farmland. Despite a planned coal phase-out, Germany's 2022 Energy Security Act reactivated coal plants to offset Russian gas imports, reduced by the war in Ukraine. Seen here images by @daniel_chatard , featured in our special exhibition, ‘Down to Earth: Climate Change and Climate Futures’, photographed in Germany: 1. Demonstrators walk along the advancing edge of the Garzweiler II open-cast coal mine near Lützerath, on 8 January 2023, the last weekend they could legally enter the village. 2. Police officers hold a demonstrator who tried to march towards the village of Lützerath to the ground on 14 January 2023. 3. A bucket-wheel excavator digs through a field where corn used to be grown, near the village of Lützerath, on 10 February 2021. The machine is enlarging the Garzweiler II open-cast mine, which stretches over more than 5km. 4. Energy company RWE demolishes the parish church in Immerath, on 8 January 2018, as the village is razed to make way for the expansion of the Garzweiler open-cast coal mine. The church was an important local landmark, consecrated in 1891 on the site of the former 12th-century church. ‘No Man’s Land’ by Daniel Chatard, awarded in the 2024 Contest, documents the demolition of villages in the Rhineland region, in Germany as well as the resistance to the country’s growing coal consumption, particularly the Energy company RWE’s. This project is part of our special exhibition ‘Down to Earth’, developed in partnership with @minbz , highlighting the environmental devastation amplified by climate urgency and the power of collective action forwarding a more sustainable agenda. See more about the exhibition via the link in bio. #DowntoEarth

Some months ago, I had the privilege to meet the legendary singer and poet Wolf Biermann for bref Magazin – almost 90 years old, he talked to us for hours, formulating his thoughts and ideas poignantly. I was very happy to see my photo on the cover.

Red Storm Bravo Training. Hamburg, Germany, 2025. On the Blohm+Voss site in the port of Hamburg, the German Armed Forces are practicing a military scenario as part of the Red Storm Bravo exercise. An explosives attack on a naval corvette is simulated, during which around 80 casualties are evacuated by the company’s fire department and transported away in helicopters. Photographed for @spiegelmagazin and as part of my project ‚European Prospects‘. Photo Editors: @nide.d and @jasmin.gritzka Author: @juliakanning

Notes from the first journey for my recently started project ‚European Prospects‘. I travelled by plane, train, bus, hitchhiking, ferry and on foot to the island of Ithaca where I took part in the @return2ithaca artist residency, reflecting on Homer‘s Odyssey. I’m so grateful for the nourishing exchange and the new friendships made during this time. Currently I‘m on my way through North Macedonia and Serbia before heading back home. Looking forward already to reflecting on all the material gathered during this trip.

Ascent to Mont Ventoux, Tour de France, 2025 First day photographing for my new project ‚European Prospects‘ - I’ll be writing some more about this in my next newsletter, sign up if you want to follow me on this journey (link in bio).

I’m beyond grateful to receive the TruePicture Award 2025 for the realization of a new photographic project. It’s an immense freedom and privilege to know I’ll be able to produce new work over the next 18 months and I’m very curious where this journey will take me. My project proposal ‘European Prospects’ confronts the European idea of a continent united in peace with the multiple crises facing it today. With my planned photo series, I want to make the presence of the partly abstract, partly manifest threats of war, climate change and a changing global power constellation tangible. Travelling through Europe, I want to create an experiential portrait of contemporary European reality in the face of these challenges, a social and psychological landscape of the continent. The working title is a nod to the seminal work ‘American Prospects’ by @sternfeldarchive which influenced me a lot. The first slide is an image I took of my mother a long time ago in my parents’ house in France. It has no direct connection to this project and yet I feel it says a lot about my connection to photography and landscape in general, even though I can’t (and don’t want to) put it into words. Congratulations to all other winners! @jajana.tuerlich @greuble @jonaskako @_aliona_kardash @ludwig.spaude