The Hunters.
"The Hunters, Lost in time" series is about hunting with hounds whose attire, etiquette and rules are based on traditions that go back hundreds of years.
The series, candid shots taken between 2016 and 2020, sends us back in time.
The riders, the pack of hounds, the grounds seemingly unchanged and familiar to the 19th century prints.
Read more
In France the tradition is alive and well, with 400 French «equipages», 10 000 members and 100 000 followers.
At a time when the killing of animals has become a taboo, hunting is socially less tolerated.
Although this type of hunting kills by 50 times less than shooting and that the animal eludes the pack more than one time out of two, hunting with hounds has focused the attention of activist groups and media.
Maybe because, in France as elsewhere, hunting with hounds is widely perceived as an aristocratic, anachronic pursuit.
It used to be a favourite royal pastime, abolished by the Revolution in 1789. Now the practice is regulated by government institutions according to sustainable development and is socially mixed.
Still, this evolution remains invisible, hidden by the fact that hunts with hounds are extremely ritualised.
Full regalia for the staff and field, sociability codes marked by great courtesy, a particular language using ancestral terms incomprehensible to the profane make this activity highly visible.
