Insula is the Latin word for island. In the brain, the insular cortex is believed to be involved in consciousness and our awareness of emotions, including empathy and compassion. It’s from this etymology that Alexis Pichot’s (b. 1980) contemplative images of archipelagos emerge – offering a moment of calm amidst today’s constant influx of digital news, information and images. Pichot is a French photographer known for producing work in the dead of night. Here, he captures rocky outcrops surrounded by deep blue and still purple waters. Moonlight bounces off the ocean, creating a milk-white sheen on its surface. Elsewhere, mist and fog engulf islets in mysterious, ethereal blankets. “I lived by the water – or was surrounded by water – for three years,” Pichot recalls. “These images reflect all the magic I experienced there. A new horizon is announced, an imaginary line is drawn, the observer that I am is the centre: the sky and the ocean no longer merge.”

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Image courtesy Alexis Pichot. From the series Insula (2021-2022).