We are in February 2025, and it’s been exactly 10 years since I started photography. To mark this anniversary, I’ve chosen to reflect on this decade of adventures through several articles that will be published throughout February on my blog.
Although I started photography in 2015, it wasn’t until 2017 that I decided to make it my main profession. This fourth and final article will focus on the post-COVID years.
In retrospect
I like to compare the evolution of my career to that of a growing child. At first, I was driven by an instinctive energy, a thirst to explore without asking questions. I dived into photography with spontaneity, capturing images, over and over again.
Then came a moment when I took a step back, when I felt the need to question my approach: what am I doing and why? Looking back through my archives, I noticed recurring themes that I hadn’t fully realized at the time.
Like a form of psychoanalysis, I questioned each of my actions and their results in search of meaning.
I captured doors, staircases, corridors… In my urban photographs, the figures were either completely absent or depicted anonymously. As in the "Va-et-vient" series, where the passersby are reduced to just their legs.
This process of introspection allowed me to highlight my deep fascination with the concepts of passage and absence.
Among my many series, including some still unpublished, the one dedicated to the chairs of Parisian gardens also illustrates my interest in these themes.
In short, after COVID, I finally had a clear vision of my work and its intentions. This became a major asset when I began applying for grants and artist residencies.
Toronto
In 2022, I obtained my first artist residency. For those unfamiliar with the concept, a residency is a program where an institution hosts an artist and provides the resources to conduct research or create a work.
In my case, the Alliance Française of Toronto welcomed me after discovering my Parisian photographs. Impressed by my approach, they wanted to produce an exhibition that would juxtapose Toronto and Paris through a cross-perspective of about forty photographs.
I spent a month there, determined to create images in record time that could rival those I had produced in Paris, which took me years of work. You can learn more about this experience by visiting the page dedicated to my residency outcomes, available here.
Angers
The following year, I continued with a second residency, this time in collaboration with the Mécène et Loire corporate foundation and the Museums of Angers.
The theme of the residency was "Heritage and Light," a subject that was both artistic and territorial. This was an opportunity for me to leverage my background as a geographer.
The experience lasted more than a year, with shooting sessions spread over nearly six months. I walked nearly 400 kilometers across the department, which resulted in the exhibition "Shadows and Light," presented in Saumur and Angers, and later integrated into the collections of the Mécène et Loire foundation and the artothèque of Angers. You can learn more here.
And now?
The year 2025 is just beginning, and despite the years that have passed, my passion for photography remains unchanged. I’m eager to see what the future holds—there are still many pages left to write.
I sincerely want to thank everyone who took the time to read these articles retracing my first decade as a photographer. Thanks to you, this journey continues, and I hope to share many more moments with you in the future.
Comments