Olivier Fichou 🇫🇷

Photographer

Olivier began taking photos in 2015 during an expedition to the Arctic. Winner of international expedition grants and surrounded by multiple sponsors and partners, he sets out to open glacial routes with, for the first time, a reflex camera in his backpack. He won't come out anymore.

After dozens of expeditions, from the great polar expanses to the giants of the Himalayas, in collaboration with the biggest players in the outdoor world, photography, initially as a means, has become a goal. Inseparable from his skills as a mountaineer and steep skier, he can hoist his device up the most technical and remote faces.

Learn more

ACTIVITIES

Hiking
Climbing
Ski Snowboard
Mountaineering

My vision and practice of mountains and photography

We don't go to the mountains to simply enjoy the great outdoors and the landscapes. We go there because we like it there. We eliminate the superfluous and we find ourselves alone. We only rely on ourselves. It is a space of great simplicity, an environment in
in which we devote ourselves fully to the present moment, in which our decisions have a direct impact on the course of things.


The high mountains are becoming more and more trendy and advertising, where success rhymes with the supposed intrepidity of a few braggarts. Facing risks and knowing how to manage them is part of the satisfaction that high mountains can bring. But more and more adventures present this risk factor as a guideline. Taking risks seems to be the goal of the practice... Risk can enter into the equation of our satisfaction but it must remain a means. A way to appreciate one's ability to minimize and control it.


My sensitivity in photography is to transcribe and highlight the very special moments of life that the high mountains offer us, and sometimes impose on us. It is the photography of the mountaineer rather than the photography of the mountain.

The Lagoped Family

We all have individual goals and challenges in the mountains, but we must not lose sight of the challenge we all have in common: that of preserving them.


Lagoped reminds us of this and helps us equip ourselves without compromising our ambitions for the success of this objective which concerns us all. It is only a stone, but it helps to build the cairn which shows practitioners and industrialists the path to follow.


So yes, I am very proud to be part of the Family and to bring, as an ambassador, my gravel to this great cairn that we must build together!

Projects

After around ten expeditions in the Caucasus, the Andes, the Himalayas, the Tian Shan, the Arctic, the Middle East... I have been refocusing for several years on more local and more sober projects, during which I focuses more on methods, progress and human experiences rather than an ambitious summit objective.


The Alps are full of legendary routes and I intend to continue exploring them in slippers, crampons or under a sail before returning to tackle more distant projects. The only constant in the equation: my camera, which will always be in my bag.

Stories