Since the late 2016, the 1920’s schooner Avontuur has been transporting goods between Europe, North America and the Caribbean, hoping to become the missing link between sustainable producers and conscientious consumers. Only a few sailing cargo vessels are active today, while fifteen of the biggest container cargo ships release as much sulfur oxide as the 1.2 billion cars circulating around the globe. We traveled onboard the Avontuur from Canada to France in the last months of 2017 to document the human, social and economic aspects at stake in such a challenging undertaking.

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A wave is photographed during a crossing of the Atlantic Ocean on board of the Avontuur, a German-flagged commercial sailing cargo vessel which transports goods from Montreal, Canada to La Rochelle, France. During the crossing, undertaken in the winter, the ship has encountered heavy winds and storms up to force 10. The traditionally-rigged two-masted schooner’s mission is to inspire more companies to undertake cargo sailing, using renewable energy as an alternative to the high pollution rates of the modern cargo shipping industry. Atlantic Ocean.
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Biographies

Laurence Cornet (France) has worked as a photo critic, curator and writer for the past twelve years. Her writing collaborations include magazines such as MSNBC (US), Vogue (US), Vice (US/FR), Huck (UK), L’OEil de la Photographie (FR/US), The Guardian, Harper’s Bazar Art Arabia (UAE), Prussian Blue (FR), Nafas (DE), as well as various book projects and publishing houses worldwide (Actes Sud, RecCollective). She co-founded DogFood, a zine about photography, in 2013, and is the editor-in-chief of the journal #Dysturb.

Benjamin Petit (France) is a documentary photographer and the co-director of #Dysturb, a nonprofit formed by photojournalists making visual information freely accessible to a wider audience by pasting large images in city streets. His documentary work focuses on social inequality and climate change related issues. Benjamin Petit is a Fulbright scholar. His photographs have been published in The New York Times, Stern, Days Japan, Le Figaro and Paris Match among other publications. He is based in New York.

Gaia Squarci (Italy) is a photographer and cinematographer who divides her time between Milan and New York, where she teaches digital storytelling at the International Center of Photography. She’s a contributor of Prospekt agency and Reuters. With a background in art history and photojournalism, she leans toward a personal approach that moves away from the descriptive narrative tradition in documentary photography and video.

IWMF fellow, POYi awarded her cinematography and photography work respectively in 2014 and 2017. She was among the 30 under 30 Women Photographers selected by Photo Boite for 2018. Clients include the New York Times, The New Yorker, Time Magazine, Vogue, Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Newsweek, Internazionale, Io Donna, Il Corriere della Sera, among others. Gaia’s work has been exhibited at the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne, Switzerland, and in galleries and festivals in the United States, Italy, France, UK, Mexico and China.