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Mathis Decroux
@mathisdecroux
Best of the week 29 at #nomadict 2020
My name is Mathis Decroux, I’m a 23 year-old French photographer/filmmaker from France based around Geneva, Switzerland. I grew up in the French Alps with a strong passion for the mountains and the adventures they offer. With the family we regularly escaped on these adventures and travelled a lot around France and Europe during holidays.
"I began shooting videos with my friend Alexandre when I was 14."
I got the first GoPro (which was a 1080p beast at the time) and we filmed ourselves landing our first 360 tricks on skis. I actually think it’s still somewhere on YouTube! I kept filming what I was doing, and it slowly became a passion… I was filming my sports, my travels, my friends… And when I turned 18, I wanted to take a next step and get a camera body. I was able to capture cleaner videos and in addition started shooting photos. This was the beginning of photography for me.
"Now I’m never traveling without a camera, I can’t resist making content and hunting the golden light. My friends can attest to that..."
As part of my studies in Engineering I went on an exchange to Sweden. This was definitely a tipping point in my photography career. I had so much time for myself that I spent most of my days going to the gym, watching photo tutorials and going out to shoot. I got my first client at the time, and it was a huge stimulus; I knew I wanted to go further in this domain. It got me totally by surprise, I just received a message on Instagram – he said he liked my work and wanted to travel from the UK to work with me. Also, as a young freestyle skier, I have always dreamt about having sponsors to support me, but I never had the required level.
"Today, working with brands is a way of making this dream come true."
"Sometimes people wonder why I, as an engineering student, suddenly changed my career plans to start freelancing in visual creation. Though to me it was quite obvious: I realized I'm an outdoor guy and I enjoy moving around, exploring new places."
The freelance schedule suits my lifestyle way better, and I love sports so much I really wanted to include them in my work. Also, being your own boss enables flexibility and I like managing own projects from beginning to end. Content creation is such a versatile job; knowing your camera by heart, shooting pretty much everything, spending time enriching my portfolio with many different projects I feel enthusiastic and passionate about… In this domain, having an engineering education is an asset but can also be a problem. I’m very organized and I like things to be clear and well-defined like with engineering problems, which is a great thing when working with clients. However, this can put restraints on some other projects, and I am constantly working on getting the right balance between well-defined work and taking risks, going with the flow.
I’ve only recently begun working with brands and it’s something exciting but at the same time something that makes me feel uncertain as it’s all very new for me, especially the first few times were huge steps out of my comfort zone. Contacting a brand, showcasing your work and meeting a need with your skills are the main crucial steps. It’s something that is always challenging for me in one way or the other, but I also know that I am constantly evolving. One aspect of the challenge is to believe in your work and trust yourself in delivering quality. Fortunately, I can always count on my friends and relatives to receive their feedback and support, especially when you go through some more difficult moments. Freelancing is freedom, but it’s a roller coaster with ups and downs.
"Though if you are passionate enough, you will enjoy the ride and always find back your energy."
The content I create is based on both photos and videos. Like mentioned before, I began with videos and slowly found my way into the photography world. For me, videos are useful to truly convey a feeling, take people on a visual adventure and develop a theme, an idea, a travel. You can change the mood, the rhythm but the hardest things are keeping the viewers’ attention and making them understand your message. As for photos, people look at them just very shortly, so it has to be efficient, to the point and attention-catching. Everyone does that in their own way, and I’m into minimalism.
"I like to keep my shots simple and clean, which can be hard depending on the places you visit."
First, the ski world inspired me deeply and that’s how I started. Though with time, I learnt to see more, observe better and now I obtain inspiration from many other sources. All kinds of places and creators from the French Alps and all around the world contribute in some way to what I am able to create nowadays. When I feel uninspired, it means I have to take a break and I believe it’s important to listen to that. I love to take time to slow down and really enjoy the simple moments, or practice sports to relax, especially outdoors.
That’s also what makes landscape photography so much fun; you are outdoors, enjoying the nature and exercising at the same time. The hike to the place of the winning shot was not easy either, I like that physical and mental challenge.
WINNING PHOTOGRAPH
BEST OF THE WEEK 29
We went to this spot where there’s a huge hole in the mountain, it looks amazing on photo and it looks even more epic in real. We had in mind to shoot it for a while, so we decided to get a tent, our gear and some food and we began climbing to the spot at about 7pm. This wasn’t easy: our bags were heavy, and the trail was steep, sometimes dangerous. We were late for sunset and the map was as blurred as the A7s3 release date. We reached the top at 8:30pm and we were mind-blown when seeing the place for the first time. The scale was so impressive! Nature does marvellous things. With time, we witnessed the darkness was transforming the place – we could hear the ibexes, the owls…and when looking up, we saw the Milky Way was aligned with the rock.
"I pressed the shutter and when reviewing the shot, I was even more amazed. I ran to my friends like a happy kid to show them the result."
It has something special to me. It is a photo I took accompanied by my closest friends, the ones who support me the most in this adventure and in addition, it is a shot taken of a place I really wanted to get to, and that required effort to accomplish.
The energy that photography generates within me makes me feel that I am doing the right thing. I just finished my engineering degree a couple of weeks ago, and I will dedicate myself full time to the creative field as of September.
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