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Antonin Verel
@withantonn
Photographer based in France
Today I am 25 years old, and for all these years I have simply used my phone to take random pictures of what happened in daily life, without caring about the quality, the framing, or the emotions that it could provoke. Photography was an unknown area to me, I never had a photo camera and I didn’t necessarily see the utility of it.
Once I started to spend more time on social media, I realized that there were photographers out there taking incredible travel photographs. The landscapes and the fact that these photographers shared their life by the means of photographs made me dream… Was this something I could do, too?
In September 2020, after I finished my studies, I planned one of my first long trips to Zakynthos island in Greece. I ordered a photo camera and a drone to be able to share my adventures through photography. I created lots of content that wasn’t qualitatively the best, but it definitely helped me learn the first tricks of photography and I advanced quickly.
After Greece I returned to Paris where I essentially did street photography. I practiced with the unknown “subjects” that I encountered on the streets in the present moment. Never did I prepare my shootings, I just charged my camera, had a certain objective in mind, and left the house. All day long I could be outside, photographing people, their movements, their interactions and emotions.
"I began at sunrise, when people started their days, going to work, taking the metro, bicycle, car or even the scooter. Paris woke up, and I composed my photos."
"What did people have on their mind? What were they feeling? What expectations of the day were influencing their state of being or appearance?"
Observing the people and following their energy helped me compose photos in the moment and decide on what I wanted to transmit with the result without planning photos beforehand. These days in Paris allowed me to profound my technical knowledge and to switch from automatic mode to manual. It has been a very enriching experience, helping me to observe and understand.
Several travels to different countries and natural scenes around the world then brought my interest in photography to another level, and it became a true passion. I developed my creativity, and I learned to tell a story and transmit emotions through my images, which ultimately showed me that you don’t take a photo – you make it.
Both travel and photography changed my vision of life and wellbeing. Traveling helped me to connect with the feeling of freedom. We don’t know what tomorrow will look like so the only real task we have is to be happy, to find pleasure in what we do and take advantage of the moment, also when working.
My last adventure was to Austria and Italy, road tripping in a rented campervan together with my girlfriend and our cat. We crisscrossed the routes of South Tyrol, experiencing the concept of vanlife, and were amazed by the beauty of the landscapes. It was like dreaming awake. We parked at different spots every time, saw the sun rise over new landscapes every day – simply magnificent. We had never been so close to nature before.
"Exploring new horizons and discovering the unknown made us realize that this is what we would continue to seek throughout our life."
Maybe it’s not the most comfortable, but what you get in return is definitely worth it. This summer we will be using the van to drive across Europe in search of new adventures, which we will surely share through photos on Instagram.
Photography and travel have both been an answer to my search for happiness – and being in nature, doing what I love, have given me many more answers I didn’t know I was searching for.
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