It feels weird to talk about my work (and even to use that word) when I've only been doing photography for 2 years.
To be honest, I have no idea what I'm doing. I thought I did at some point, but I mostly don't. I'm learning all the time, especially the technical stuff. That's really not my biggest strength.
A lot of these are portraits, but it actually represents a very small proportion of the photos I take. The thing is, taking photos of people is scary as hell. Whether you know them or not. But it's also exhilarating. I really want to become better at it. I said that I had no idea what I was doing, well I guess that's not entirely true ; I think that ever since I started doing photography, I've tried to work towards showing something genuine. I'm like obsessed about seizing a moment, an emotion, before it goes away.
I think I've grown the most during last year. I left home for another country, with no one I knew, another language and very little plans. Photography-wise, it was extremely disconcerting. But in the end, the body of work that I have produced during these 7 months abroad is one of the things I'm the most proud of. Since returning to my home country I've been feeling really lonely and numb emotionally and artistically speaking, and I think it shows in my current photography. I used to be very passionate about things and not so much anymore, but I guess that's just the fluctuations of my mental health. I try to keep documenting everything anyway, without thinking too much about whether it has a point or any worth.
I don't think there was a moment where things specifically clicked, everything pretty much always happens in waves. In terms of motivation, inspiration, etc. I'd say that travelling is what definitely impacted me as an artist though. I had to learn how to deal with losing all my bearings and how to recreate new ones, while moving and meeting new people all the time.
I don't know if [being French] affects my style of photography but I notice now that when I was abroad (it was New Zealand by the way) I found myself photographing things that I would never photograph here in France, like the suburbs, people's driveways, cars, diners etc. Probably reminiscences of the American movies or music videos that I grew up watching. It gave me a weird sense of home, somehow! Since I came back my photography is a bit all over the place haha. I'm convinced I have a lot of growing up to do artistically. I do want to find my own style but at the same time I don't. I'd hate to settle into something comfortable!
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