Yohan Terraza

@yohanterraza

Photographer based in France

I wouldn’t be able to tell exactly where my passion for photography comes from. I’ve been kind of shocked in my childhood by stories such as “where the wild things are” or movies like “The never-ending story” which still influence me in the way I want to translate reality. I feel a need to discover what the world has to say and try to understand it. Everything is about stories I guess; stories to live and stories to tell.

"For me, photography is like a pen, it is a tool to tell a story."

If I had to choose between writing and photography, I would pick up writing. I see myself writing a book in a small shelter in a lost forest. No pictures, only words and stories. Texts are as important as pictures in my work and are part of this “translation” process I work on. I love telling stories: it’s the best way I found to feel alive and to have something to give back to people. Sometimes they are sad, sometimes they are happy, and life gives you the roads that you need and helps you to open yourself to a lot of new beautiful things and people. 

That is also why I believe that if you want to improve your photography, you should drop your camera and talk to people, listen to their stories, smiles and tears, read books, think, watch movies and go to exhibitions.

"My biggest influencers aren’t photographers, but painters, musicians, and authors."

I don’t think about technique, but about how to translate the idea that I have in mind. I work on immoderation. I try to interpret reality through what’s in my mind, I create landscapes with some extra light to shape reality and replace mankind into its second role of universal contemplation. Some kind of lost wisdom that may be a legend today, sadly.

An edit of a photo can be different every day, based on how you feel, the music you listened to when editing and the experiences you have had recently or a long time ago. Editing is the part of the creation process where the interpretation of reality takes place. It’s never about technical stuff, only being connected to the child inside me; I use my memories to translate things that I am experiencing now. He is the master and it’s all about intuition. I tell my own story with a photo and there can be a variety of feelings behind; happiness, fear… though I think nostalgia is everywhere at some point.

However, this is my vision of photography. The photo and it’s story doesn’t belong to me anymore the second I share it. I can’t control what others feel when looking at the same photo. There are a hundred different feelings and stories behind the same image; photos are everything but reality. When sharing a photo, I just give a part of authenticity. I’m always curious to know how people will interpret it through their personal story.

"Photography made me discover that I could be inspiring for people, and I could help and lead people to express what lies within them, which is probably the most grateful thing above anything else.”
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