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Camille Paillery
@camille.paillery
Landscape photographer based in France
My name is Camille. When I am not discovering other continents, I spend my days in the south of France – under the mistral of the province. I started photography at the age of 10, very innocently, with a polaroid camera from my grandfather. I took photos of the everyday life and asked my parents non-stop for new films until the production stopped one day. I was fascinated by both the idea of capturing an image that would come out magically as well as how the shadows, the light and the colors were transcribed on paper. It was very amusing to create photographs while feeling inspired by everything that surrounded me. That is how I began to express and tell stories through photography. Influenced by my family and mainly my father, who used to capture the beauty of the moment and love through portraits, I developed a desire and need to capture my vision of the world according to my own sensitivity.
"I naturally had the wish to explore the world, to find random and enriching encounters in life and to tell stories through my captures."
"It was only when my dad passed away that I realized that life depends on a silken thread."
I made a 360 degree turn and decided to travel, to live unique and authentic adventures. It was a way to revivify my soul and get a different perception of the world, to really get to know it. During my travel, I immersed myself deeply in photography in order to tell all these stories I lived on the road. I think photography is an outlet for all suffering; art can be a therapy that transcends sorrow. I could not have expressed myself other than by capturing the light; photography has been a healing tool for me, a tool that allows me to hear myself and express what I truly feel and see.
"At the beginning of my photography journey, in my adolescence, I was very shy and I was having trouble reaching out to others to do portraits."
It was one of my challenges to be able to carry out my reportages which were very often based on encounters with others – travel is for me synonymous of sharing. I don’t see myself photographing only nature, the dimension of meeting people is essential in order to understand a country, a culture. By remaining natural, I noticed that my reserved personality and softness of my approach was appreciated, sometimes even an asset to demonstrate respect to the other. I can only advise timid people to take the time, to be an observer, to seek glances, to smile, to simply say “hello”, to use gestures to make oneself understood and above all to laugh! I noticed that my modest smile was quite communicative and turned out to be a very effective approach. This is how I now really enjoy exchanging with others on my travels.
"My most remarkable travels were in Vietnam and Japan. Asia in general has always attracted me."
I felt intrigued with the idea of mingling myself with the population and to discover their way of living and perceiving the world. These countries have allowed me to bring me back to the basics of life through their culture; to come back to the simplicity of existence. I learned to satisfy myself with the necessary and to redefine my perception of traveling. It’s but the exchange with others that enrich us, and it’s the love and feelings that we take with us at the end. I wanted to exchange, share and capture the details of their daily life. The shared moments are the best I have been able to live while traveling in these countries and I keep them close to my heart still today. Memories mostly recall our feelings; the laughter of kids, the wind that surrounds us, the sun that caresses our face, the smell of a place, the water that takes us, the landscape that becomes a jewel…
"Photography can transmit an emotion, tell a story, stimulate imagination, but travel makes us live it."
"It is the atmosphere of a place, the nature and environment and how it makes me feel that inspires me at the very same moment of being there."
I search to capture a moment as how it is, as how I live it, without trying to achieve a result I had in mind before because I just let me guide by the moment and the emotion. I see life as a temporary parenthesis that allows us to explore and love. That is why I love to concentrate on details with the aim of composing a story told by the togetherness of details within a scene. When I’m out in nature I stay around for a long time, I immerse myself, I appeal to all my senses. I photograph the dry or wet earth, the overcast or sunny sky, the movement of the wind in the grass…
"When contemplating a photo, I personally try to feel the experience of the photographer, place myself in his position."
So beyond bringing out the beauty of the subject, I try to make people imagine the feeling, the vibrations, as if they were there too… The emotional dimension is extremely important to me. This goes for people photography as well; beyond photographing a face, I capture the environment, what the person has in her hands, the place she’s looking at, where I am, the gaze of those around in case there are any others… I believe that we can see more and capture more when we imagine the personality of the subject, when we go beyond the physical appearance of only the model. It adds a deeper dimension.
"When people ask me about how I developed my photography and editing style, I have difficulty with responding because I believe that this simply derives from my sensibility and my way of perceiving things."
I act very instinctively and how I like it in the moment because I see photography not as a tool to transform reality into something else that consequently fades my true emotion away. With my photography I want to transcribe the reality, a reality that shows the details that we don’t necessarily see but are still important to be aware of and that are part of the whole. I try to stay true to what I have seen and lead the eye to the subject of interest by applying shadows and adjust brightness to give a certain softness to the photo. Photography accompanies me day and night. When I walk around, I constantly have this vision in mind of what a photograph could give and what it could tell about what I see and feel.
"By practicing photography, we discover how to seeing life differently - by leaving our microcosm we learn to observe, feel and share more often. I believe that’s the power of photography."
"I was fortunate to have the support of my family to get involved in photography with body and soul."
My mother’s in particular has been very precious to me. My blog also allowed me to build relationships with a caring and passionate community. Besides, I had the idea to create the page @lesfrancaisvoyagent in order to gather a French-speaking community of travelers to exchange about our passions in French. I hope that through this community, links will be created between travelers passionate about the mountains, nature, animals and connecting with others. This is an opportunity to share and I would very much like to be able to really exchange with the community and carrying out actions for the environment through solidarity events. These two pages provide a great experience that has so far allowed me to develop myself personally, to reach out to others, to exchange sincerely and to remain open-minded.
"To show solidarity, kindness and generosity because, at the end, that is what remains most precious to us on the long run of life."
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