Valentine Colin

I have always been immersed in the pictorial world. Even before receiving technical training in school, I was self-taught and quickly turned to the culinary field. What interests me is how to convey appetite, flavor, and desire through photography.

This discipline is, for me, a universal language and undoubtedly the medium that seems most expressive, most effective, whatever its purpose. I particularly enjoy the field of culinary photography because it requires creating sets, a context, and telling a story. What stimulates my interest and creativity lies in the atmospheres that can be created through lighting, composition, and styling choices. One almost becomes a miniature set designer. The other aspect that appeals to me in this practice is the rigor and meticulousness required, and what fundamentally pleases me is that a beautiful image is not built, or very little, impulsively. It must be conceived beforehand, constructed, adjusted, sometimes creating an illusion. It's a playground that may seem limited but is immense and delightful when one knows the rules. And it's on this ground that I want to play.

This field of creation that I like, corresponds to me in return. My graphic design training allowed me to compose my images well, instilled rigor and accuracy. It also trained me to manage my time by carrying out multiple tasks, as well as respecting specifications, thus striking a balance between creativity and professional organization. My photographic background, in turn, allowed me to move from a two-dimensional plane to a three-dimensional plane, and reinforced qualities I already possessed, my autonomy, my versatility, my initiative, and my critical eye. These are, in my opinion, the qualities of a photographer.