Photography of Adrien Blondel

Born and raised in Normandy (France), Adrien Blondel moved to Paris to study history of cinema and graduated with a degree in cinematography. His interest in photography began in teenage and he progressed on his own. His work focuses on architecture, landscape and relations between people and their environment.


About me: I studied history of cinema and cinematography in Paris, and later moved to California where I work as a lighting technician in the film industry.

Adrien Blondel photography (2) Adrien Blondel photography (3)I picked up my first camera as a teenager, and I always had an interest for visual forms of expression. I got more seriously into photography about two years ago, I started to shoot more, to experiment with different media (I switched to film photography recently), and most importantly I started thinking about photography, about what and why I was taking pictures.

Adrien Blondel photography (4) Adrien Blondel photography (5)Statement and preferences: Living in a different country has shaped my photography practice towards the idea of home, and that of familiarity with one’s surrounding. I search for links between language, photography, places and memory. Most of my images are taken randomly, without purpose, in a street photography style. I like to isolate elements around me, be it people or objects. I also have some series where my photographic choices are motivated by more of a constructed idea and goal.

Adrien Blondel photography (6) Adrien Blondel photography (7)I used to shoot with a 5D Mark-II, but I have recently changed to a Mamiya 645 with Kodak portray film. I enjoy the craft aspect of film photography, as well as the color I can obtain with this medium, but I would switch back to digital if I felt like it was expressing what I want to say better.

Projects and series: I have completed two series so far. In “I Can’t Hear the Sound of French”, I started with an analogy to language, and I searched for the sound of my surrounding. I explored the relationship between shapes and purpose of buildings and other elements of my surroundings.

Adrien Blondel photography (8) Adrien Blondel photography (9)I travelled to South Korea and Japan, and set out to find the source of the feeling of not being at home, the root of ‘depaysement’.

I am working on a project about memory and photography. I have been interviewing people about their memories of their childhood bedroom, and confront this interview with a photograph of what the room is now, changed or not.

The images I included are a mix between photos I snap everyday, and my exploration of Korea and Japan.

Adrien Blondel photography (10) Adrien Blondel photography (11)Influences and favorites: I am interested in photography with a conceptual approach, such as the work of Sophie Calle, for example. There are so many photographers I enjoy, I am thinking of Alex Cretei Systerman, Shane Lyman, Doug Dubois, Noemie Goudal…

Coming from cinema studies, I am a big consumer of films, and my inspiration probably comes from directors in the first place. I could name Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Chantal Ackerman, Nuri Bilge Ceylan or Theos Angelopoulos.

Adrien Blondel photography (12) Adrien Blondel photography (13) Adrien Blondel photography (14) Adrien Blondel photography (15) Adrien Blondel photography (16) Adrien Blondel photography (17) Adrien Blondel photography (18) Adrien Blondel photography (19) Adrien Blondel photography (20)All photos © Adrien Blondel : Website | Instagram | Twitter | Tumblr

About Nishant Mishra

Nishant studied art history and literature at the university during 1990s. He works as a translator in New Delhi, India and likes to read about arts, photography, films, life-lessons and Zen.

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