When I was at primary school, I used to miss a few days each year; my father said that I would learn more travelling than I would at school. He was one of the first french polar explorers in Svalbard in 1936 (I am from a second marriage), he wrote books about his adventures and he was a great oceanographer. We always travelled together until the end; even at 85-90 years old we could be found in the mountains or in the atlantic waves. It is because of him that I have developed a totally anti conformist vision of life, far away from conveniences and blandness.
Unfortunately at secondary school, after the divorce of my parents, I was in a very strict school. I had only one dream from my 12 to my 23 years old… Going on a very big travel! I was planning this great trip while studying art history and anthropology at the Brussel University during daytime, and circus in the evenings. The 24th of June when I achieved my master, I shaked hands with my directors, went down to the street where my friends and family were waiting and I said bye, jumped into my car; my mother crying cause I had said that I was leaving for at least 10 years.
We drove through central Asia for 2 months, left the car in Kyrgyzstan, entered the Tibet hidden in trucks, travelling through the Himalayas to Lhassa. Then Nepal, India and after South-east Asia, where we also travelled over rivers in the jungle of the famous golden triangle. It was a great one-year adventure, just living it with the two of us and the people we met on the road, because at this time there were no smartphones, only a very few internet cafés with a bad connection.
I shooted a lot during this adventure, using silver photography. Some magazines were interested by our story but at this time I wanted to be a pure and ‘soul’ traveller who doesn’t commercialize her travels. I also never shooted seriously because I didn’t know how to show my pictures. Besides, I had enough opportunities to express my creativity through theatre, dance and writing. However, when I began using Instagram in September 2018, I discovered a world; a way to share my photos and to meet photographers. I was so excited! As I felt I wanted to shoot more seriously, I updated my old Nikon D90 to a D750 a few months ago.
Nowadays I specialize in landscapes and nature photography (mostly mountain now) for some reasons. In 2014 I got a grant in theatre research and entered the team of researchers of the L’L theater in Brussel, with a subject concerning human actions, nature and the damages we are responsible for. It’s a huge subject which leads to so many fascinating topics like ecology, philosophy, quantum physics, ethology etc… Being deeply in love with nature, I have always been concerned about ecology, I already adjusted my way of life by choosing vegan options and consuming less, but with this grant I began to learn more about it all and really work on it. It might sound surprising, but it was because of this that I got so much more into mountains.
For me, mountains are the last places with fewer human traces or damages, or at where it seems like there are fewer. The real nature lovers, the ones that appreciate every little detail, the ones that enjoy the outdoors but with respect… For me those ‘outdoor addicts’ are the new indigenous, connected to the Earth against an outer world of destruction.
In the book I will publish next year as a result of my research, I want to illustrate how we are part of nature and that we have to take care of it, trying to find new ways to live on this planet, new ways ‘to be’. And with my theater writings I want to convey a message that explains our current ways of thinking and doing and that we can’t continue like that. If I must finally find a word to describe my profession in life, I would love to respond ‘poet’, and photography is a fantastic way to share this part of me.
I don’t share to say: ‘look how beautiful was the place I visited’, but I share to show a true natural beauty with my personal caring and loving vision. I am always happy when I discover some works of other photographers because it’s like a beautiful travel through the eyes of someone else. It’s nourishing. I want to keep learning about photography and editing by seeing how other photographers are working, trying new things, working with light… And I wish to buy new lenses to try other ways to shoot.
20 years after, from the recklessness of a safe and frozen world to the perspective of the collapse: How am I gonna act upon that? We can’t be carelessly living our lives anymore; there is internet, we have a global world, we know that there is something wrong. Personally I want to act, and I want to have as big dreams as I had when I was 20… I want to imagine solutions and new ways of being in the world; more simplicity, more slow-style living and traveling, create new standards of living well. Me and my friend are in our forties now, vegan while living in a country with sheep tongue on the menu, and full of innovating dreams, having the desire to highlight diversity in a world of deadly standardization. Growing up often means giving up dreams and adapting to an unimaginative system.
We will do all the Pamir Highway, Khyrgistan, Karakorum Highway and the Pakistan Himalaya. This time I am going make a documentary, write a book, and take take a million of pictures! Our summer expedition would like to deliver the message: ‘less is more, and less can save our planet’. I am aware that I can say that easily because I can have the comfort of my home and I don’t have to struggle to survive; it’s an occidental way of thinking. But it would be great if we, I dare to say westerners, but also others, learned to reduce our consumption and materialistic attitude and focus on the essential.
I love to sleep outside, best nights in the world are nights under the stars! Sitting on the ground, feeling the wind on my face, looking at the sky and a landscape and cooking a simple meal on the camping tool are things that really make me feel alive. When you’re in rough conditions you realize how little things can bring so much joy, like a hot tea on a summit, a firewood or a sunrise and every little thing become luxury. The ‘more and better’ bore me a lot! Big cars delivering ten messages a minute, a big kitchen with thousands of tools and utensils… those things make me become a zombie without imagination and creativity.
Interestingly though, I lived in big cities like Rome, Madrid, Paris and Lille; never in the countryside. But, I always travelled with my van. When I was doing circus and dance, I traveled a lot through Europe and my van was my home. I really love vanlife, it’s a deep happiness to have your home everywhere; a room with fantastic views and terraces wherever you go. It’s basically a 5 stars life! I also travelled all over the six continents while working as a tour leader for a Belgian travel agency and also for my research grant.
I am often really impressed by mind blowing landscapes, but also by the kindness and the hospitality of the people, sometimes living in really basic conditions. There are so many more smiles compared to here, where we can have almost everything we want. Sometimes I could cry when receiving those free smiles from people who have nothing but a big heart. We can learn a lot from them. I am grateful that I could meet these people, and I am grateful for all the wonderful nature on our Planet. With my photography I want to make people dream about these places, and make them reflect about the impact human has on these places. That we cannot take our Planet for granted. I also hope to motivate people to travel themselves in adventurous way, to witness the beauty of nature and to immerse themselves to really experience nature in such way that it affects your emotional state.
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