Midnight Zone, 2024

Midnight Zone is one of the latest major video productions by Julian Charrière, guided by the light of a wayward Fresnel lighthouse lens sinking down the water column above the Clarion–Clipperton Zone (CCZ). Stretching between Hawaii and Mexico, this vast abyssal plain in the central Pacific Ocean is home to one of the most mineral-rich deep-sea regions on Earth. The presence of these dense deposits of polymetallic nodules has made it an intense point of economic interest in recent decades, since it contains valuable metals such as nickel, cobalt, copper, and manganese—key materials for batteries and renewable energy technologies.

Still, the CCZ remains a largely unexplored frontier, home to fragile ecosystems dense with biolumines­cent anglerfish, grideye fish, elusive sleeper sharks, and the giant sixgill sharks, as well as slow-growing corals, sponges, and unique, often undis­covered species adapted to extreme conditions. The growing push for deep-sea mining in this region raises serious concerns about irreversible habitat destruction, biodiversity loss, and the disruption of carbon-cycling processes in one of the planet’s last untouched biomes.

The presence of the lighthouse lens, unbound from the terrestrial tower and wheeling through water shim­mering with life, seeks to challenge our conception of these deep, submerged regions as largely lifeless.

The video stages an investigation into the extractivist threats the area faces—by illumi­nating not the desirous seafloor, but the scintillating life-forms which occupy the waters above it. With a custom-built Fresnel lens, Charrière ignites an abyssal campfire, attracting a menagerie of oceanic creatures whose fate would be inevitably disrupted by underwater mining operations. Rejecting the fixed vantage point recognizable from classic nature documentaries, the camera, reeling and untethered, orbits the suspended lantern. As underwater species gather and disperse around the drifting light, the video acquires an anti-gravitational quality, dissolving any clear sense of orientation. We seem to drift into the scene itself, moving with the beacon, becoming an involved part of this world. The result is a destabilizing choreography where light, life, and viewer float together.


Credits
Editor: Johannes Förster
Score: Laurel Halo
Spatial Sound Designer: Felix Deufel
Sound Design Assistant: Nino Theys
Lead Compositing Artist: Sean Sams
Compositing Artists: Kalle Max Hoffmann, Neil Reynolds
Editing Assistant: Leoni Faschian
Colorist: Johannes Förster
Post-Production Supervisor: Johannes Förster
Post-Production Coordination Assistant: Hannah Weidner

Expedition
ROV Operator & Director of Photography (DoP): Antoine Drancey
ROV Operator Assistant: Brieg Dufée
Marine Engineer: Christophe Leclercq
Underwater Camera Operator: Adil Schindler
Production Support (Above and Beneath the Waves):
Runar Jarle Stray Wiik
Underwater Guide & Safety Diver: Sten Johansson
Production Management Assistant: Hannah Weidner
Onsite Production & Coordination: Tanya Johansson, Sten Johansson
Vessel Operators: Dora Sierra, Susan Long, Pablo, Noberto, Manuel,
Cinco, Manolo, Everardo, Leonardo, Jerson

Acknowledgments
The artist would like to thank the many scientists and guides who
contributed invaluable knowledge and support along the way,
as well as project supporters:
Pedro Alonzo, Benjamin Coppel, Haley Ha, Allison Miller, Logan Mock,
Hannah Nolan, Carlie Wiener (Schmidt Ocean Institute),
The Shifting Foundation.