Benjamin Pothier
Joined Atlas Obscura in 2026
Dr Benjamin Pothier is a French photographer, filmmaker, journalist and anthropologist, and a Fellow of The Explorers Club (FI '18).
His work takes him to places where perception stops behaving normally: the Arctic in polar night, active volcanoes, deserts, the Atacama, the high Himalaya, and the simulated Mars and Moon habitats where he has served on seven analog space missions. He holds a PhD from the Planetary Collegium, where his research examined why the same visual forms — spirals, split faces — recur throughout human history in cultures that never met.
He contributes to GEO, The telegraph, La Stampa, etc.. and has written for Carryology for the better part of a decade. His photographic series Analog Astronauts was selected for the 24th DongGang International Photo Festival in South Korea.
He is based in Paris, cooks intuitively, and is generally happier at latitude.
