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Sébastien Labruquere
@seb_labruc
Photographer based in France
My name is Sébastien Labruquere, 37 years old and born in Bayonne, Basque country, southwest of France and still living here. I am lucky to live in such a wonderful region in between mountain and sea where I can go hiking and find myself in nature easily. Growing up surrounded by nature shaped my appreciation for it. My curiosity for the world and for what could be found outside of France, my known territory, was aroused by “Ushuaïa”, a French television program broadcast in the 90’s. As a 10 years old boy I wouldn’t miss any episode; still today I can recall these old episodes and how they inspired me. By this means I discovered different corners of the world and learnt about the importance of protecting the planet.
"Already back then I told myself that me too, when grown up, would travel the world."
"I began showing interest in photography during my adolescence, corresponding with the era in which digital photography just began."
The idea of having an instant rendering of what I photographed intrigued me. Though it was my first big backpacking trip to Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia) in 2010 that inspired me to dedicate more time to photography. Before leaving I bought a reflex camera, a Canon 550D. I didn’t understand much about the settings and buttons of the housing but that’s what it was about: learning photography during my travel. As a complete beginner, I took way too many photos, often of poor quality; I still get a smile on my face when I look back at those photos now. This travel made clear to me that I wanted to learn more about photography, and that I wanted to travel again as soon as possible.
"Now I go out to photograph whenever I have the time besides my full time job as a business manager and travel has become a priority too."
"My first travel to Asia had been an eye opener."
Already when leaving the airport, you step out of your comfort zone and all your senses are awake and sharp. You lose your orientation and learn to discover by yourself. I spent a month in the middle of the unknown in any sense, and I loved it. Each travel has its own special impact. For example in Argentina, I found myself in almost complete solitude when arriving in a small, very isolated town after a five hour bus ride and four hour 4×4 ride from the nearest town. I spent three days with one of the inhabitants and surrounded by salt flats, mountains and volcanoes.
This may sound paradox, but my travels taught me to use my camera less. As much as I enjoy looking back at my random photos of my trip in Asia, I prefer to shoot less and focus more on enjoying the moment. Experiencing my surroundings with all my senses before narrowing down by looking through the viewfinder. It is useless to continuously have your camera in your hands and filling the memory card with a hundred of shots while you don’t enjoy consciously what you are experiencing at the moment itself, the beauty that is being offered to you. At the end my goal is to immortalize what I experience and if I forget to actually be aware, look around and feel, I can’t create the result I am looking for. The same goes for shooting in automatic mode – it is easier and faster, but I worked hard to be able to switch to manual mode in order to better capture what I see, and then continued learning to be able to convey my emotions through my editing.
"It has been challenging, but after all a photo can tell how I experienced the moment."
One day a friend of mine told me that I am someone contemplative. A wonderful compliment I believe. And I think it’s true. When I am in nature, traveling or when looking at a nice view I contemplate first. I observe and breathe in the moment. Only once I think I have found the perfect composition, I take the camera and press the shutter. You can say that my vision of life can be summarized as “Carpe Diem.” Thanks to my travels and thanks to people I have met along the way, I realized we are just passengers on Earth. Having this in mind reminds me that we have to respect and enjoy what the planet has to offer.
"Humility is essential in my opinion; we, “westerners”, don’t realize how lucky we are."
"I believe that each trip brought me something I needed, to develop myself personally, to get to know myself better."
Especially my trip alone to Scotland in March 2018 contributed to that. For various reasons I had had one of my most difficult years and I really needed to leave, whether it was only a 100km away or the other side of the world. I decided to head to Scotland, being sure that I would explore splendid landscapes and a rough atmosphere due to the weather circumstances during that time of the year, which was exactly the type of photos that I wanted to create. This truly helped me to get myself together and grow mentally, as for that I am more the kind of “hiking-rain-wind-snow-sun” person than a “hotel-beach-pool-cocktail” person. I feel good when immersed in nature, like in Scotland, where my days were only planned the night before or not planned at all.
"I left every morning, free to go hiking wherever I wanted, searching for landscapes and moments that would suddenly delight my day and brighten my thoughts. This trip, this experience, was a real introspection."
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