The English philosopher Francis Bacon once said that in order to command nature, one must act according to its rule and identity. This life lesson alone could sum up the adventure my photographer friend Louis Perrin and I we immersed ourselves for almost two months. In the heart of Peru, from the Andean summits to the Amazonian jungle, we would not cease to be moved by the striking cultural diversity, between the imaginary Inca and daily life along the Great River.

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During this journey, we left Cusco, the "belly button of the world", where we will let ourselves be led in the footsteps of the Incas. At the gates of the sacred valley, we will cross for long days the mountains of the Salkantay massif, following the Inca Roads, an immense transportation network built during the days of the empire that leads us to the ancient citadel of Machu Picchu, perched high above the Urubamba river.

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Down the road, we will leave the Andes and their great History behind to submerge ourselves in the contemporaneity and bustle of Iquitos, the gateway to the Peruvian Amazon. A succession of encounters will lead us on to new paths, where we will sail for several weeks on the Amazon deep into the heart of the lungs of our planet.

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The common desire that motivated us throughout this journey was to tell the story of these two worlds that live side by side without knowing each other. It was therefore natural to choose black and white in order to combine these two geographical regions, which are so distinct and yet so close. With nature as a bridge, our glances are melted in a single and built a single shared illustration of these lives governed by the Pachamama, Mother Earth.