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Maxime Mienné
@maximemb
Photo Journalist based in France
My mom brought me with her to Hong-Kong after she got divorced from my dad. I was just a baby and because she was working a lot, a nanny was taking care of me for days. Both my parents were flight attendants and as I would move every three years to another place with my mom, socially it has been kind of hard. As a young boy I suffered from the lack of parents and leaving friends and trying to make new ones every time has been psychologically demanding. Arriving “back” to France at the age of 13 was maybe even harder – I was “different” in a country that was considered “my country” – I wasn’t really French after all. Nevertheless, thanks to my parents’ work I had the chance to travel to a lot of countries and experience life in some of them. Therefore I have an open mindedness toward the world and its cultural diversity that I am thankful for having been able to develop. All these experiences helped me a lot in my construction as a human being, and contributed to becoming who I am now.
"When people ask me where I am from, I say that I am a citizen of the world."
After moving to France, I kept travelling every time I could; first with my parents and then alone with my backpack and camera. The passion for photography has been developed throughout the years. I have never been to any country without a camera or something to take pictures with. I remember my first camera was a small Kodak, and as soon as we were home I wanted to get them developed and see how the pictures turned out. Also, I was impressed by the work of my stepfather’s best friend, who’s a photographer in LA. Every time we visited him I was asking him hundreds of questions – I was fascinated by his art. Later on, my stepfather got really into photography too and won a few contests. It became a true passion which he shared with his children.
Meanwhile I studied Political Science and then a master degree in Investigative Journalism. Thanks to my photography skills, I have started to learn video making and editing, which is now my work. The first time I really told myself that I wanted to put this art into an actual job, was when I was in Cape Town, working as a journalist for a magazine. One day the editor came to us asking who wanted to be part of a humanitarian mission in some townships. He told me it could be a good idea if I took some pictures for the magazine and wrote an article about it.
"Of course I took the opportunity and from that moment on I started improving my skills day after day."
Ever since that experience I have worked for French television, as videographer, and for some other clients mainly for their communication. In 2019 I decided to quit my job as a video journalist to travel around the world with my backpack and go back to my passion which is photography. I have started to post my photos on Instagram, with a cool caption saying where it was, about a piece of history I have learnt there, or a fun fact. People started to appreciate the content, and travel agencies and Instagram accounts reached out to me asking if I could make some pictures for them in exchange for payment. I couldn’t say no, it was the best: to travel and to get paid while doing what I love. Last year I started my freelance activity as a photographer and videographer, but because of Covid 19, it has been kinda hard to progress and find contracts.
When I became a freelancer, I also felt that it was time to visit Iceland after all my more recent travels through South America and New Zealand. So in november last year, we decided with a group of friends to take two weeks off and explore a part of Iceland. Of course I had one goal in mind: take as many pictures as could of the incredible landscape. The tones were pretty different from what I had seen in Latin America and I had to adapt to the light and the colors. Even though I had a really good camera (lumix GH5), some of my pictures didn’t come out how I expected. The edit was also tough.
"Iceland changed my way of capturing pictures."
I bought myself new lenses to adapt to my needs, and got to know my camera better. Also, when I first edited my photos from Iceland, I was just using phone apps, basic apps to change some details. I discovered Lightroom just this year, and I’ve found so many new possibilities to edit my photos. It was less difficult to make small details pop or highlight, and to really transcribe what I really wanted.
I’d love to go back once, with a concrete project in mind, do a collaboration and combine photo and video. Also to get to know even better the culture of the land and its people and its history. I think because of my work, and because of my natural curiosity, I like learning about the stories and information behind what you can see on the surface. And I love sharing these things I have learnt myself in the captions of my photos on my IG feed. Personally I really enjoy the posts from others where I get information or get to understand why the person took this picture.
"Every photo has a history around it worth being aware of. Not just yourself, but many people. You just have to share it, and that’s what I do."
"My favorite photo that tells a true and confronting history in my opinion, is one I took in New Zealand."
The first day I got there, a local took me to a hill where we could admire the sunset over Auckland. This hill was an old fortress which was built during the second world war to prevent an attack from the Japanese. We could still see the remains of the bunkers and the weapons that were used. Some kids were playing around a huge cannon, and one of them was sitting on top of it. The sun was starting to set and at one point it was perfectly matching the little boy’s head. I took the picture at this exact moment.
"I could see the recklessness of one generation, and the trauma of another."
"It is these kinds of photos that mean the most to me. It is a way to give voice to nature, to history, and to people who don’t have it."
The person that inspired me to do this, and who had a huge influence on me, my cosmovision and my art, is Mr. Yann Arthus Bertrand. I have met him at a conference on his new movie, back in the time, called “Humans.” This movie really touched me and made me think. It is more of a documentary with a quite simple format: portraits in front of a black background. But because of the simplicity, the stories really impact you emotionally. It touches upon different themes; war, religion, rape, treatment of women, slavery, racism, etc. The thing I really loved about this documentary is the way he succeeded in making those people talk in front of a camera about events they suffered from. Being able to make someone comfortable enough to open up and be vulnerable, in addition on camera, is just incredible, and it fascinates me.
"It is the connection. The trust. The mutual vulnerability. I feel it both with people and landscape photography. And I knew that it was what I wanted to do."
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