Photographer, painter and poet Mario Giacomelli purchased his first camera in the early 1950s and immediately recognized the link between the practice of painting and the capture of light through the lens. He soon set up his own darkroom, where, choosing to work with high-contrast paper, he developed a distinctive photographic eye. With the movement of the camera, the blur and the play of light and shadow, Giacomelli created dreamlike scenes in which beings emerge as ephemeral apparitions. His taste for lyrical abstraction, especially in painting, is evident in his photographs, which often reveal his inner state of mind, particularly through the graphic intensity of light variations. Deeply linked to his native region, the Marche, Giacomelli immortalized boundless plains furrowed by the plow, shadows that stretched across the fields and facades of rural houses; many photographs also offer glimpses of birds, clouds, female faces or other shapes. His birds rise from dense vegetation, appear like shadow puppets on translucent surfaces, dwell among vaporous clouds or materialize as fragile presences. Choreographed flocks of white birds echo the lines of the foliage, as the animal and plant kingdoms blend into one another. Between arrival and disappearance, reality and dream, Giacomelli's birds resemble calligraphic signs that expand into a musical score against the backdrop of a rural landscape. To accompany this visual collection, Jean-Noël Rieffel, veterinarian and director of the French Office for Biodiversity in the Centre-Loire Valley region, has made his first contribution to the Des oiseaux collection. He draws connections between Giacomelli's images and ornithology, paying particular attention to larids (gulls and sea gulls) and corvids, subjects dear to the photographer.