Did you face any particular challenges in completing this photo reportage?

Apart from the weather – which I see as more of an asset than a handicap, because it creates unplanned situations that are almost always positive – the real constraint was the technical side. Since it’s an unfamiliar world to me, I needed to avoid just focusing on the aesthetics and risk getting off the point. So in quite a short space of time I had to approach people and ask the right questions – I needed to quickly grasp what they did, and decide how I’d get the right shots.

Were you surprised by anything?

What struck me was how special the cooperative model is – everyone’s really working together, whether they’re a small outfit or a big business.  The people I met don’t work for VIVESCIA, but with it. They also share a strong interest in grain and they’re curious about what work their colleagues do – much more so than you’d expect.  You can tell that these are people who are very committed to their work.

Did you have any memorable encounters?

When I was taking the first photoshoot, I met Alain at his farm in Rémicourt during my visit there. Then I bumped into him again by chance in October when I was shooting the last image, which was at the Agrosol Club meeting about soil conservation. It was funny to come across him at the start and again at the end of the project – I thought it brought a satisfying symmetry, it was a nice note to end on.