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Thibault Havart
@tibosantacruz
Photographer based in the US
It was eight years ago that my passion for photography started. I was still a student and worked at a famous DIY store to pay for my studies. Here I met a colleague who became a friend, and who, being a passionate amateur photographer, invited me to do a photoshoot in his studio one day. Delighted to do something new, I accepted and found myself intrigued by the results – by photography. This wasn’t going to be the last time! For the next photo sessions we explored locations all within and around Paris.
Two years later, I took a one-year “sabbatical” from my master. Six months were dedicated to an internship within my areas of studies – and then there were six months more left to be spent in one way or the other. I thought about doing a complementary internship to obtain more knowledge and experience in the field, or doing something I had been dreaming of but always seemed to be so far away (literally and metaphorically): going on an adventure at the other side of the world. Inspired by a friend who traveled to the four corners of the world and by some famous travel influencers who shared the most incredible photos, I finally booked my ticket to Australia.
"I had never made such a good decision before, nor will I be able to make a better decision anywhere in the future. "
A second internship would have been interesting, but what I’ve been able to learn and experience during six months in Australia is timeless. I invested in a drone before my departure to immortalize the moments I was about to live and to do so from unusual angles – Drones were still pretty new and uncommon back then.
Once I arrived, I settled in a house in Sydney, Bondi Beach to be precise, together with 12 other globetrotters. I began taking photos and videos with my iphone and drone and with each shot I loved the act of photography more. I explored every corner to try to get the best photographs and while the time passed, beautiful encounters and unexpected experiences kept unfolding in front of my eyes.
"This trip made me realize that I was living the vision I had about life: exploring, creating, connecting, and living the present moment at its max."
These six months were magical and are engraved in my memory. I had the chance to travel the Australian east coast (from Melbourne to Cairns), the north and south island of New Zealand and New Caledonia (a French territory composed of many islands next to Australia), all in a camper van. I managed to create a video highlighting my trip – a video that is far from the visual quality I am able to achieve today, but that ignited my passion for photography and video. What made me fall in love, in particular, was the feeling of creative freedom, where no limit but your own imagination impedes you, or frees you.
Ever since I have started creating, I have been developing my artistic style and learning how to express myself – and I still am. There is one photo that is close to my heart because it represents who I am as a person, and therefore, as an artist.
We were on the way back to Los Angeles, but still in Joshua National Park, when the sky caught my attention. We stopped along the route, got out of the car and stepped into the darkness. Into the silence. It was pitch dark, stars were sparkling bright, we were in the middle of the Park, and there was no one around. We sat down, gazed at the starry sky for minutes – and then I took this shot.
"Besides the fact that I love the aesthetics of the photo and the significance of the captured moment, this shot showcases the thoughtful man, traveler, and dreamer I am, in search of permanent liberty."
By betting on a spirit of freedom and giving yourself the possibility to choose what you really want, it is difficult not to dream of a crazy and ambitious future; it is difficult not to push back the limits of the possible, and even more difficult to deprive oneself of the inspired action which can make our dreams, reality.
In everyday life, I am someone simple who loves to spend time with the people I love and who also enjoy living life, making the most out of it. When I am in travel mode, I have this adventurous side that makes me go beyond the beaten paths, challenge limits, and search for uncaptured perspectives.
It feels bizarre sometimes, but wherever I find myself, I immediately see the potential of the location and visualize the content I want to create, the ambiance of the video I’d like to achieve by using certain music or melodies, the structure of the video… I can spend hours and hours at a spot until I obtain exactly what I had in mind (sometimes up to the moment the people I travel with get bored or annoyed). Being passionate about visual creation and inspired by the natural surroundings is hard to turn off.
"When I arrive home after a trip, the real creative in me shows up. I always try to push my creative limits and tap into “the new me” that I’ve become after a trip - Each adventure enriches who I am as a person and as a creative."
Already as a kid I enjoyed expressing myself creatively; I loved to draw to showcase my fantasy world and my own vision. Today, drawings have become photos and videos and my creative child soul has matured along the years – still in quest of evolution and newness.
The most important thing to me when I edit a photo or video, is to transmit emotions to the viewer. I want the viewer to feel the ambiance, the significance of the moment. I want the viewer to travel, to forget about the current surroundings and imagine being at the very spot I stood myself. To accomplish that, I make sure that the photo is unique, that it highlights the core of the photo and that the mood fits with the actual experience and scenery. I like to dive back into my shots because it’s like a second trip for me, I can feel the flavors, the noises, the atmospheres… Sometimes I even like to modify “reality” by adding details to impose my own reality.
A specific photo, that I took from the Haleakala Crater on the island of Maui during my trip to Hawaii, helped me realize how much is possible through editing. With this photo I also really learned that it is ultimately a tool to freely translate an intense experience to a canvas, that in turn can illustrate how a moment was perceived and felt. On top of the volcano and above the clouds, we watched the sun set in all its glory. The colors were fantastic – the whole scene left us speechless and was very touching. However, the photo that I took didn’t capture all of that. The RAW photo didn’t represent what I had seen and felt. So I allowed myself the freedom to accentuate the colors of the sunset and added the Milky Way to show the starry sky that appeared when the sun had gone down.
The entire Hawaii trip was a dream coming true. I had moved to Chicago early 2019 and recountered my best friend from my time in Australia on the island Oahu – the third largest of the Hawaiian islands. We explored four of the many islands that are part of the archipel, including their deep blue waters. I was able to do what I could only wish for as a kid: swimming with dolphins.
At that time, I didn’t have all the gear I have today. It was my first trip with a real camera, so I was able to provide slightly more qualitative photos than my previous trips, but this device was not really suitable for making video. Despite that, I absolutely wanted to release a cinematic video about this incredible destination, using beautiful storytelling. So that’s what I did. I spent a lot of time looking for a story, trying, thinking, starting over… and in the end I came up with a result that I am happy with.
This project made me realize that it is not the gear that is most important, but rather our ability to constantly challenge our creativity, our openness and our imagination.
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