With the most hostile climates in the world, part of the territory is colonised by deserts. These sterile zones which are not favourable to life have however always been travelled across by man. Depending on the latitude, the activity in these expanses, à priori hostile, is not the same. Leo Caillard visited the American West, to the Mojave Desert, Death Valley to be precise. The dry lake of Racetrack Playa is the lowest, driest and hottest point of the whole of North America. The arid soils of Death Valley are virtually devoid of vegetation. Leo Caillard proposes a very high-definition series of landscapes. By assembling images, the artist proposes panoramic formats. With a ration of 1:3 and more, the assembled photographs cover different angles of view closest to the human angle of vision. Scanning the landscape in this way, the photographer ponders man’s position in the area and his stamp on the landscape.

**The artist: Leo Caillard**

Leo Caillard has practised photography since the age of 16. It was therefore a very natural choice for him to make it his profession. On leaving Gobelins (School of the Image) in 2008, he became a freelance photographer at barely 23 years old. He spent the following year in New York. He chose to complete his training there as an assistant to other photographers. This journey also allowed him to develop personal work that he conceived as a series. Retouching and montage quickly imposed as his medium of photography: ‘I like to create images at the edge of reality, with a play on pretence.