I grew up in the Arve Valley, at the foot of Mont Blanc, but it is only recently that I started to be interested in its geography and its various landscapes. Of course I was aware of the incredible beauty of this territory, I enjoyed contemplating it, but cities and urban environments seemed to me ten times more interesting and rich in material. It is through cartography, and in particular through geographic information systems (GIS) that I was able to appreciate how fascinating rural (and alpine) territories are. Spaces that I thought were "empty" or "flat" were full of unusual qualities and hidden facets. I discovered waterways I didn't know existed, secret trails, and in the context of this map, geological layers that I crossed on foot, on horseback, on skis, by bike, by car... without ever realising I had passed from one to the other.
The map was made with QGIS (a GIS mapping software), illustrator and photoshop. The geological data is available at the departmental scale in georeferenced vector format. I superimposed these layers on the contour lines which are also available at the departmental scale. The vector layers were textured by merging them with fragments of rock, marble, ceramic and other materials, taken from the open source collection of the Met Museum (NYC). Finally, the typography was taken from an early 20th century mountaineering magazine.
