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Paul Buyck
@pebuyck
Best of the week 34 at #nomadict 2021
I’ve always loved nature, and traveling is a great way to discover a bit more of it. Even when I was in school, all I could think about was getting out of there and going to live out in the wilderness. I didn’t like school much anyway. I even started missing lessons sometimes when I was 16 or so. I’d wake up in the morning, pack my stuff, and spontaneously hitchhike to wherever I wanted to be for a few days. I’d be in the middle of the Pyrenees or Alps, with my book of edible plants and mushrooms (plus a bit of food in my bag), flint and marcasite to make fire, some fishing line and so on. I was pretty careless really, I didn’t even take money or ID with me, just the bare essentials.
I grew up in France, but when I’m there it feels like everything natural is always either frowned upon or difficult to access. Between some small jobs, I started to travel around Europe. I met so many people through hitchhiking and had a wealth of new experiences. I also lived in Martinique several times, where I was working in a perfume company with my mom. When I was 23, I traveled to Peru to experience one of my lifelong dreams: living with a tribe out in the natural world.
To me, tribal people have figured out the best way to live. Everything they do is a far cry from our modernized, industrialized lifestyle that destroys the environment. They have gathered knowledge over generations of how and what to eat (without a supermarket), how to build a house by hand and how to use medicinal herbs.
"Above all else, they are kind and welcoming, so even though you’re living so far away from towns and cities, you don't feel lonely, and you have their knowledge to guide you."
I found this tribe through a mixture of determination and luck. I went, spontaneously and carelessly as ever, with just the idea of “let’s go to find a tribe, I’ll figure out the rest once I’m there!” I traveled to Cusco, where I asked around about a small market that was a few hours away from there. I had heard that people from a tribe used to go there to barter their potatoes and beans for fruits. That’s where I met Domingo. I explained to him in my bad Spanish that I wanted to find a tribe to live with, far away from civilization. I explained that I didn’t mean to go there as a tourist, but instead to be a part of their tribe and help them with whatever they needed (building, foraging and farming). Domingo told me he belonged to such a tribe, so I left with him, and that’s the story of how I wound up living with them in the mountains for over a month. Only a few men there could speak any Spanish, and the women only spoke the language of the tribe. I helped them with their houses, farms, and livestock. They survived on just the bare essentials and were such kind and happy people.
"Even now I often think about that place and its people, and I know I will go back one day to see what became of them."
This might seem like an extreme measure, but I just always had this mindset that was driving me to experience the freedom you feel when you’re living out in nature. I wanted to be able to sleep outdoors, to build a fire, to experience a more primitive way of life. You just can’t do that in a park or a nature reserve, the rangers wouldn’t leave you alone for a start. That’s why I decided that living with a tribe would be the best decision for me. I really enjoyed being with them, and they liked having me around too, so much so that they even wanted me to choose a wife and stay with them.
After that whole experience, I decided to travel on to Bolivia and Chile. This phase of my life changed me in unexpected ways. I started to think more about what I wanted to do with my life. I went back to France and bought my first phone at age 23, as well as some new clothes and more worldly belongings. I think pushing myself to such extremes made me realize that I hadn’t wanted to live this all-natural life because it made me happy personally, but because I thought that way of life was what was best for me and the environment. Once I’d had that epiphany, I realized that I didn’t want to do something just because it felt like the right thing to do for the planet. I wanted to live and enjoy life for my own sake, too. So I made a compromise.
"I still love nature a lot, but I don't feel the need to go to such extremes in order to do my part to take care of it."
Living in Finland has been a good way for me to meet that compromise. I only bought tickets to stay here for a couple of weeks and see the Northern lights, but not long after arriving I decided to find a job and stay. I threw away my return ticket, and never looked back. I loved the countryside and the climate so much, staying here was a no-brainer. There’s a low population density, plenty of nature, and everyone is allowed to camp wherever they want. I find the culture here values our right as humans to have access to nature and natural places, so different from the contempt for nature I experienced in France. This is a culture I feel happy to be a part of, though I still take the time to travel and indulge in my photography to keep my pictures looking varied.
I find there’s something new to learn in each place that I travel to. Living in South America made me realize that I could do whatever I wanted with my life if I put my mind to it. That as long as I gave it my all, I wouldn’t be disappointed. Finland gave me many things: my independence, a job I enjoy, a country that I love, and somewhere I can call home.
"Living like this is what helped me to decide that photography was what I really wanted to do with my life."
I didn’t discover my love of photography in the best of circumstances, though. When I was first settling down in Finland, I was working as an arctic guide for a terrible boss. We weren’t paid correctly and had to work double or triple the hours we were supposed to. The job was nice but the company was crummy. Then of course the pandemic began and the tourism industry ground to a halt. I needed to find something to do. Now that I had a fresh start, I could do anything I wanted, so in October 2020 I bought a camera and started learning photography. By now, I’ve invested more than half of my life savings into it, and spent a lot of time learning and practicing. When I do something I do it with a go-hard or go-home mindset. I want to be among the best photographers out there.
I started out by posting fashion shots, after being inspired by content from some successful influencers on Instagram. However, the snow came early that year and it got pretty hard to take those sorts of pictures in -30°C weather. Which was fine, because I don’t think that style of photography was ever really me. Traveling and showing off the amazing landscapes I saw through my photography was a much more exciting prospect.
So I changed my photography niche to do more of what I really enjoyed. I’ve always loved to create, build, and learn new things. My passion as a photographer is what keeps me curious, interested, and motivated. Lately, I’ve been working on my photography every day. I’m living off of my savings while I build my portfolio, but the goal is to earn a living through Instagram as a full-time photographer.
Earning through my photography is great, but I still think it’s important to collaborate with brands whose products fit with my account and my audience. Travel, camping or hiking or photography gear… Things that are useful to me and helpful for the people who view my photos. If I feel like a product doesn’t mesh well with my page or isn’t from a brand I can trust, I don’t do the collaboration. There are some exciting collaboration prospects on the horizon, however. I’ve just bought a van in preparation for a photo road trip around Europe (starting in September, if possible). This is pretty good from a collaboration perspective; as van living becomes more and more popular online there could be so many brands out there dedicated to van decor I can work with now. Not to mention, I will be able to create some beautiful photography while on my travels.
Some of my most amazing moments and stunning pictures have come from traveling in Europe, Northern Europe especially. I’ve done so many fun things under the glow of the northern lights: snowmobile rides, snowshoeing, I’ve even had a BBQ under them.
The day before I took the winning northern lights photo, I went canoeing on the lake there for the first time. It was a super magical experience. I remember vividly how there was fog around me, and the northern lights were dancing faintly across the sky overhead. Seeing them from the water was such a unique, fantastical experience.
I would have captured my photo there and then, but the lights just weren’t strong enough to show properly in the picture. Luckily for me, the forecast for the next day looked very promising, so I went back. This time the northern lights absolutely filled the sky, a perfect night for a photo. I chose the lake because I realized I could capture that gorgeous reflection on the water. It wasn’t easy as this shot was a long exposure, 10-second shutter speed, meaning that I couldn’t move the canoe since it needed to stay super still. In fact, keeping the canoe still was the hardest part.
"I had this idea of capturing the northern lights from a canoe in my mind for a long time."
I needed to get a photo of the lights with strong colors and a well-defined shape in the sky. I needed the lake to be thawed, not frozen, so it had to be the right time of year. I wanted to be sure there was plenty of light on me and the canoe. I tried my utmost to give anyone who views this picture the exact magical feeling that I felt that night.
This is one of the reasons I still struggle with editing. I want to make sure my photos have that magical, truly awesome feel to them. I can spend hours making my photos look their best, then when I think I’m finally done, I always manage to find something else to edit. I edit with the goal of making my shots look more clean, contrasted and just overall more magical than they already are. While editing the photos of the northern lights, for example, I bumped up the blue saturation and toned down the green to get the overall effect just perfect. I think I edit my photos, especially ones like these, in a pretty unique way. I do sometimes doubt myself, wondering if I’m doing it right or not, but I suppose that’s still all a part of learning and growing as an artist.
"A healthy level of self-doubt is necessary for anyone to grow, and it’s also good to reflect on who decides what is right or wrong and whether that is a universal truth."
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