Mountain land restoration collection
These photographs take us to the mountains and forests, streams and glaciers, landscapes and villages of the past, where we meet the inhabitants and the foresters. Most of the photographs come from the Archives Nationales.
This photographic ensemble comes from the former administration of the ENEF. It was produced in the context of a large-scale policy on the restoration of mountain land (RTM).It is an outstanding collection of several thousand photographs relating to the work undertaken in the mountains to combat the catastrophic floods that occurred between the 1880s and the First World War. Among others, it documents dams, nurseries, planting works, canals, torrents, avalanche paths and landslides.
Photographic campaigns were carried out on these same sites at regular intervals. This historical approach was invested with scientific objectivity, because at the time, photography played the role of witness, or even of proof. It served as a form of "propaganda" intended to legitimise this strategy, which was launched on a large scale (18 departments involved) in all the mountainous areas of France, and which also had a long-term perspective.
The photographs are supplemented by other documents such as drawings, sketches, plans and sections. They are all captioned and documented according to a precise protocol, which gives this exceptional collection a unique scientific and technical value.
