Herbarium

You love Annecy Lake, but how well do you really know it? The mirror-like surface hides many treasures. Aurélien Martini and Sophie Weidler-Bauchez gathered a few specimens from this invisible garden and display them on the old city walls, like the herbal of a surprising aquatic flora at long last revealed.

From the humble collection of childhood souvenirs to the scientific rigor of botanical research via flowers dried between its pages, the herbal is an ancient tradition. With the help of local nature conservationists, Herbarium brings the lake’s astonishing aquatic flora to the surface for all to see. Although it uses cyanotype, an ancient light-sensitive printing technique, the mural herbal has a contemporary feel. Look for these deep blue prints as you stroll through the old city and discover the rich depths of the lake.

Aurélien Martini and Sophie Weidler-Bauchez live and work in Annecy (France).

Born in 1993, Aurélien Martini earned a visual arts degree from Académie royale des beaux-arts in Brussels. An ecologist, he uses photography primarily as a medium to question humans’ relationship to and impact on the environment.

A graduate of the interior architecture section of École nationale supérieure des arts visuels de La Cambre in Brussels, Sophie Weidler-Bauchez (born in 1996) considers her work to be a cross between design, art, and artisanal craft and between experimentation and working with raw materials. She is also working increasingly as an illustrator.