When I think about my passion for photography, I don’t think of myself as a Photographer. I am not attracted to mastering all the technicalities and theories. Photography, to me, is as a way of channeling my curiosity for life and humans, as I attempt to encapsulate the essence of the beauty of people and places with the light of the moment.
Ansel Adam wisely said that;
“You don’t make a photograph with just a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved”
I would add to that: you also bring the love you feel.
Framing my curiosity through photography started in high school. I was lucky to spend hours in the black room that had been spared by our art professor. Over the years, I took classes and attended workshops. I even became President of a photography club in Montreal.
However, it was a week-long photographic retreat with a famous retired Rolling Stone photographer that transformed my relationship with the art. For the first 4 days, we wandered the streets of a city during the day with no camera. He made me explain my shots with words, describe the camera settings, the effects of light. He made me describe the emotions of the people that would look at the photos. We spent our nights pointing at things and people with a flashlight, amazed at different perspectives that light brings to reality. I am forever grateful for his teachings that transcended the mechanics and reached the emotion that comes with photography. I learned how to use my camera to capture a story I want to tell. As Dorothea Lange, an American photographer, uniquely put it;
“The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera”
Photography is one of my happy places. A way of being spontaneous and using my intuition. A place to be human, without plans nor discipline. A pure moment of flow. So, why make it official and create a website after all these years, one might ask?
For over a decade, I worked and lived mostly in Africa and saw the few remaining untouched places in the world. I met the most inspiring people. In this era of great acceleration, it would be easy for me to be critical or appalled by what I witnessed. But I am not for the easy feat. I remain an optimist, and I believe in the power of individuals, innovation and ‘better finance for a better world’. Throughout these years, working as a mentor for young entrepreneurs and leaders, developing the local private sector, and blending finance for scaling impactful investments, I sense we are at a gateway of a brighter and more sustainable future ahead of us all.
Photography is a powerful way of telling or living a story. The glimpse of a moment that makes us more connected, more conscious. I feel the responsibility to share the many stories or what I like to call ‘travelling moments’ that I witnessed. I hope that my photos will spark in others, as they do for me, the desire to place nature and humans at the center stage of each decision we take. My website is a testimony to this. A way to remind myself that those moments need to remain vividly in my heart. And hopefully in yours too.
“I hope that my photos will spark in others, as they do for me, the desire to place nature and humans at the center stage of each decision we take”
Find me on
Instagram and LinkedIn and Bright Archers Website
