Photos that take us back to the warmth of a Parisian summer, as Oscar and I strolled along the Seine, wandering from one bouquiniste to the next. Being an expatriate far from my dear France, these photos make me remember its sweetness, when in the suspension of time, nothing else matters but being present. L’art de vivre, they call it…
I hope these pictures make you want to pick up a book, take a stroll, or take a moment to contemplate - à la française.
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Des photos qui nous renvoient à la chaleur d’un été parisien, alors qu’Oscar et moi, nous nous sommes baladés le long de la Seine, flânant d’un bouquiniste à l’autre. Être expatriée loin de ma France, ces photos me font me remémorer sa douceur, alors que dans la suspension du temps, plus rien d’autre ne compte que d’être présent. L’art de vivre, they call it… J’espère que ces clichés vous donneront envie d’attraper un livre, de vous balader, de prendre un instant.
Here is a new portrait from the shooting I did with the beautiful @emilie.basterre ! I really love this portrait. Don’t hesitate to tell me if you like it, and share it 🤍
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Un nouveau portrait extrait du shooting que j’ai fait avec la belle @emilie.basterre ! J’aime énormément ce portrait. N’hésitez pas à me dire si vous aimez et de le partager pour me soutenir 🤍
Repeat after me: allowing yourself to take up space with pure expression, joy and authenticity is a gift!!! To yourself, and to whoever is witnessing you. It’s a permission slip that ultimately connects us. Taking up space is not about stepping on other people’s shoes, it’s about truly inhabiting your own. I love how photography mirrors that process, and helps you all feel beautiful, seen, and show you a roadmap to bringing back safety and awareness in the body through an artistic somatic practice.
What a joy is it to be an artist. <3 And to heal with you all.
What helps you feel safe in your body when you’re being witnessed?
Shoutout to my wonderful models: @elise.po@_lbmy@louiselili.cn@khyliannaflowers@leila.boisvert@littlerarebluestone@fanny.bighelli@kachi@eden__lcr@keira_fly@ilo_nap@romiiprd
#takingupspace #portraitphotography #somatichealing #bodylanguage
Taking up space.
It is something difficult when you’ve been quietly told in hundreds of ways that shrinking makes you more digestible. And don’t they say you need to be digestible, to be likeable?
Leila and I explored this during our somatic portrait session. Photography asks you to take up space because the camera doesn’t lie and will amplify body language. Revealing the instinct to fold inward, or to bend shoulders.
A lot of the somatic process takes place in finding safety in opening up the body, and letting yourself be captured feeling embodied. A delicate process of chipping away at the shrinking patterns, until pure expression and freedom is all there is left.
It was such an honor to capture her beauty, and her reclaiming.
We adorned her face with flowers, an echo of her sensitivity, one of her greatest strengths. And slowly through the session, we worked our way through embracing vulnerability in a grounded and powerful way.
Doing this photoshoot with Leila healed something in me too. A reminder of how beautiful we are when we express ourselves without shame.
May this collaboration remind you that by taking up space, embodying your vulnerability, you’re empowering others to do it too. <3
What would you say if your coping mechanism called?
Control and I have a long standing relationship, born from survival and trauma. It’s time we part ways, and this video is a testimony to our ending. She’s was here for me to survive, but never here for me to expand, nor be brave. I’m ready to choose a life where shackles don’t hold me back…
May this heal something inside of you, if control is plaguing you with fearful whispers. You’re allowed to accept why it was here in the first place, and let it go. 🦋 One brave act at a time.
📷: film, shot, edited, scripted, acted by moi 🌷
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#creation #psychology #cinematicvideo #inspiring #mentalhealth
I have never met a human who does only one thing. Have you?
One of the greatest things about humans, is our plurality.
Our ability to consistently expand our inner eco-system, with our different passions, hobbies, thoughts, feelings impacted by the remnants of those we have loved, or been touched by, and the experiences we let ourselves embark on.
Meeting @hkm_artspace in Zurich, and witnessing her expressing herself through different mediums, was such a gift. Her spirit is as vivid, colorful, and kind as her paintings, and her sensibility for life is written over everything she makes, and engages with.
Often we are taught to repress that plurality. You have to “choose” to be taken “seriously”, and focus on one thing. It’s like asking a flower to only grow one petal. What a shrunk, sad flower it’d be…
Everything we do, think, and are exist with coherence, even when we don’t see it.
We are not made up of one thing, but many. And we don’t translate ourselves in one way, but many. Our plurality is one of our greatest humanly gift. And when embraced, and played with, joy and expression spark.
This film is a declaration, and an invitation, to embrace your plurality with reverence and glee. @hkm_artspace thank you again for trusting me, and letting me capture your vibrant plurality. <3
cr: music by @lsaachaines ✨
This spontaneous film collaboration of movement and poetry with my dear & gifted friend @mathildelaprte 1.5yrs ago in Switzerland has finally made its way to your eyes and ears. We hope this project blesses you uniquely wherever you’re at in life ✨ My thoughts behind this piece have only deepened with time, in every chapter since shooting, but the truth remains..
“And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
II Corinthians 12:9
This journey of surrender to God whose ways are higher, who is truth, goodness and love, is often complex to explain. In the world there is contradiction, two things that oppose each other.. whereas, with God, two things can co-exist paradoxically, creating this “duality.”
For example: I’m constantly learning deeper, how true strength doesn’t lie in one’s own ability to “do” but rather, in one’s ability to surrender and depend on God in weakness. We don’t need to have it all figured out because God already does and wants us to lean on all that He already is. It’s embedded in our design.
On the other hand, there is a kind of duality where you can experience the depth of grief and overwhelming emotions in life’s trials, yet supernaturally feel a quiet peace in your spirit by the grace of God alone.
Incredible joy and immense grief can somehow both mark the same chapter in your life. Or there’s the assurance that there is a season for all things… “a time to tear and a time to mend… a time to mourn and a time to dance… a time to be silent and a time to speak…” (Ecclesiastes 3). Life itself holds much of this duality in tension. Yet, with an open heart and surrender, God’s revelation and wisdom provide answers to the deep burning questions inside our souls in time if we trust Him and seek Him (who IS love, truth, goodness, purity, etc) above all else. Everything else will get sorted out and follow (Matthew 6:33). First, the heart must be willing, earnest in seeking💚🌱
Directed, filmed & edited by @mathildelaprte , written by me.
Parisian evenings are always filled with magic, the frost bites your cheeks, and the city lights up. But when the holidays approach… it’s almost a sport to take some picture in the city without photo-bombing anybody, or being in the way. People are wandering in the streets, eager to get some hot wine and see the dazzling Eiffel Tower, and as a photographer, you need to find the right pockets of peace to take photographs, and make the model comfortable.
@oscarlumea made the process so effortless. I love to capture how confident, and daring he is, posing in the streets even when curious eyes are watching. I couldn’t be more happy with how these images turned out; immortalizing a memorable night in the city of lights ✨
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keywords:
paris, photography, portrait, model, vintage
3 women. One shared vision.
When @angelaelizavetarobinson sent me photos of the gorgeous headpiece @selina.matt_ had created, I knew I wanted to be the one to immortalise it. To combine movement with soft lighting, and create images worthy of capturing the ethereal and magical headpiece, earrings and golden corset. Made out of real flowers, every single piece was handmade, with a lot of time, care, artistry and precision. INSANE.
So I travelled all the way to Berlin, and was even more mesmerized when I saw Selina’s work in person. Being a photographer means having the chance to work with brilliant, kind, and talented humans like Selina and Angela. Women coming together, to make magic???? AHHH. My heart’s in bliss. 🌷🦋✨
Angela’s graceful and precise movements, accompanied by her fiery presence brought the pieces to life. It became a dance, an entrancing exchange between me and Angela.
I will never forget the smile on all our faces. The wonder. The happiness to see it come together so beautifully.
Thank you for such a welcoming space @reel2reel.studio ✨
Trust.
Such a precious thing we give each other, and one of the pillars of any successful partnership, whether creative or human.
Fanny was one of the first people to trust me in 2019, when I started photography. She agreed to my crazy ideas (like being put in a bath with paint and flowers), and brought her brilliance, sensitivity, and curiosity to the project. That first photoshoot together was a turning point, because it drew attention and allowed me to open new doors as an artist. It’s a photoshoot I still carry gleefully in my heart, and one that people mention to me even to this day.
5 years later, Fanny gave me her trust again. This time around, we decided to highlight her natural beauty and charm, and shot these in my bedroom. Trust, yet again, was established and shared with one another. Fanny and I were strangers before our collaborations; and trusting someone you don’t know with your image can be incredibly challenging. A photographer can make you feel beautiful and accepted, just as much as they can shatter your self-perception and confidence.
Photography is a subtle dance, a give-and-take, an exchange. I will never grow tired of seeing the sparkle in the eyes of those who give me their trust and allow me to immortalise them. And I will never forget the laughs, the conversations, and the connection that blossoms within those moments of creation.
The promise I make is that I will reflect back what I see: their unique beauty. Beauty shines when you’re allowed to take up space as who you are, when you allow yourself to feel, and be witnessed within that vulnerability. When you decide to reframe feeling and letting go as an empowering act.
I cannot wait to continue giving people the possibility to embrace their own power, and transcend any shame they have around being seen. ❤️
A year ago, Summer of 2024, was the first time I stepped foot in the @huffmancreative office. I remember the knot in my belly, a delightful cocktail of excitement and dread. I didn’t know how my internship would be, who I would meet, and what I’d learn from it.
You can never predict when you encounter experiences that profoundly change your life. Huffman Creative turned out to be more than a place I interned at in LA that Summer, it became my first full-time job post-grad, the place I’d learn how to grow confident as a creative, as a producer, as a supervisor. Confident as a human who eagerly wants to make things happen.
It was a place where my multidisciplinarity and authenticity was rewarded.
Huffman Creative showed me that the workplace can be healthy, that you’re allowed to show up as you are, and that what matters most is to sincerely contribute and be a teamplayer. There is tender excitement in working alongside people you admire and support. Assisting @katie.sarrels and @ryanhuffmann taught me invaluable life lessons that I will be able to carry over for years to come.
I’m closing a year-long chapter, from interning to being a part of the company. Stepping into this new creative entrepreneurial journey with their support has meant the world. I feel prepared, ready, and mostly filled with indescribable joy. If it hadn’t been for Huffman Creative, I wouldn’t have built up the confidence to take the leap.
What’s next? Focusing on my art full-time, from somatic portraits to emotionally intelligent filmmaking, to letting myself explore more of my writing, dancing, singing, and every day I shall strip away the shame that holds me back to grow closer to what makes me undeniably human. ✨🌷🦋
