My name is Doytcheva and I am a visual artist based in Chamonix, France. One of the experiences that shaped me as an artist happened many years ago. When I was a teen I had a snowboarding accident and as a result I spent in bed several months recovering. The hours felt like days! I began to play around with different art forms in order to keep myself busy.
Quickly I became interested about electronic music. I really enjoyed creating my own bits. I have always had a creative mindset, so thinking about ways to create music was an excellent entertainment for that period of my life.
Eventually I thought that it would be cool if I could add photos to the songs I shared. I began to go outdoors more often trying to capture sounds in the nature with a little mic. At the same time, I started to capture photos of the “subjects” creating those sounds. Then I blended these two art forms to fulfill my creative vision.
I became passionate about photography later on. When I was 22 years-old, I met a great photojournalist who allowed me to borrow an old Leica M6 camera with a 35 mm lens. I learned how to set the exposure manually, how to focus with a ring and a telemetric view. Looking back now in time it is quite interesting to think about the positive influence we can have on each other. That is something beautiful, I believe.
As I learned and improved my skills, I decided to purchase a drone in order to practice aerial photography as well. Ever since I have been focusing on my style and storytelling. With my photographs I want to showcase the balance that I see and feel when I am in nature. The wild has inspired greatly my work, yet, I do find a lot of inspiration in other things – such as books for instance. Actually, I try as much as possible to stay away from other photographer’s work because I am always afraid to unconsciously copy their styles.
This area has so much to offer, it’s like a never-ending story of love. Before I travel abroad to explore other countries and continents, I want to make sure that I know every little detail of Chamonix because in the end these landscapes are what I have at hand every single day – and it is completely worth it!
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