The Way of St James in the Béarn

Several routes to Santiago de Compostela cross the Béarn: the Le Puy route through Navarrenx, the Arles route through Oloron-Sainte-Marie and the Somport pass, and the Pyrenean foothills route, which runs along the base of the mountains. Between Pau and the Ossau Valley, pilgrims follow old paths lined with low stone walls and shaded by trees.

The series walks one of these stages. The path plunges under the trees, climbs over rock and passes a waymark of the Way of St James on a trunk, next to the red and white stripes of the long-distance trails. At the edge of a clearing, a moss-covered boulder, left behind by the glaciers, faces the mountains.

Then comes a pause in a church. There, the images become freer: long exposures and deliberate blur, the red sanctuary lamp before a gilded tabernacle, a baroque altarpiece between two windows flooded with light, a statue of Christ in a stone niche, a round stained-glass window, a few candles in the half-light. A way of conveying the silence and light of these places rather than their architecture.

These royalty-free photos suit stories about hiking, pilgrimage, religious heritage or the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, and can be downloaded for free on Pexels.