BY: KRUPA JOSEPH
Twenty-three year-old Valentin Duciel is a self-taught photographer from Provence, France. A nomad at heart, he loves to discover beautiful places away from the city and people, armed with his camera and film. Through his work he hopes to share the notion of freedom and the culture of the 60s and 70s that continues to inspire him.
In this day and age, with the world becoming primarly digital, Duciel continues to work with an analog camera. He cites several reasons behind this choice; he always liked the natural feeling the grains and colours on his parents’ pictures brought out, and he wanted to recreate the world that the movies and images of the 60s and 70s embodied. He also couldn’t afford a good digital camera at the time.
He picked up a film camera, and began exploring the world around him. He wanted to escape the chaos of the city and the crowd. He loved the calm that nature brought, which is reflective in all of his works.
His affinity towards constant changing nature, the life during the the 60s and 70s and the wanderlust that lives within him is evident in his new series. With the help of his analog camera, he has documented travellers, nomads, modern day hippies and their relationship with nature. He shoots them on the road, by the lake, and in camps around the forest. It boasts an understated elegance. While people are, in reality, destroying the world around them, it’s amazing to see how he has managed to capture humans and nature coexisting with each other.
You can follow Duciel on his website and Instagram.
