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General Information:
Bertrand's addiction to photography has two major causes. At the age of 8, the weight and shine of his father's Leica system fascinated him. He used to secretly dismantle and mount back the lenses, just to check how they were inside. As far as he knows, his father never realised it. Thus his enthusiasm started rather from the pleasure of playing with cameras instead than seeking for nice images. It is only at a second stage that he discovered he was having some kind of eye for composition, so the pleasure of getting nice shots finally multiplied the excitement of playing with cameras.
The second reason that pushed Bertrand into photography are the fishes and corals he kept printed in his brain from the time he was swimming in Venezuela's Caribbean shores at the age of 9. Later, once back to France for studies and to start some kind of adult life, he kept using these images to mask the sad reality of Paris' greyish sky. During all these years in France, photography was his way to capture the fleeting of beauty, to keep it stored on a print he could watch during rainy days.
Pursuing his tendency to get into technical stuff, he concentrated on black & white to the extent of handling his own film and prints processing. Fascinated by quality, he became able to produce very sharp and bright prints he used to display in several arts exhibitions. He mainly obtained the "honourable mention" at the "Salon des Artistes Français" in Paris' Grand Palais in 1991. His style was very graphic, based on composition and structures simply "dressed" by subjects' natural texture and patterns. (http://www.visualdiving.com/bwart.html)
However, the "fish and coral" dream was still present and at the age of 26, he picked his diving certification and found himself into the Med Sea for his very first dive. with a Nikonos... despite his instructor's disagreement. Making it simple, he stuck to B&W in 3200 iso to avoid the strobe. His peers were confused with depth and pressure gauges while he was already scratching his hood with distance and aperture matters. He even managed to impress his instructor with simple dive portraits, a bit thanks to some contrast manipulation in his lab, but also by applying simple composition rules underwater.
Then came the big move: he settled in Singapore, following his IT career in a bank. His first purchase, you could guess, was a Nikonos with a decent strobe: something to start into colour photography. The Malaysian island of Tioman has the convenience of being reachable from Singapore over the weekend and offered pretty decent diving. It was a perfect training field, indeed. After just one year of Nikonos practice, he has been the first surprised to receive a few positive reactions from local magazines, to the extent of publishing a double full colour page portfolio from Tioman.
Then all went faster. After 3 years, he logged 400 dives, became a PADI instructor, visited the major spots in Southeast Asia, bought strobes, cameras, even housings. He now generally brings along two housings and four strobes during each dive. He may add a Nikonos as well if his buddy can assist. He started entertaining privileged relationship with the "Froggies Divers" in Bunaken, the magic island off Manado in North Sulawesi. The place is convenient to reach from Singapore and the operation is very prone to assist and use photographers' work. He is now their "house" photographer, returning there every 2 to 4 months.
Like he used to do during his B&W times, he managed to cover the full image processing from shooting to publishing thanks to his computer skills. He scans all his images, handles his own high quality prints, designs postcards, brochures or even advertisements for his clients. He designed and developed his "VisualDiving" website to showcase his works.
He is now 32 and faces a dilemma that started worrying him since he managed to get satisfactory results from the sea. His early B&W shots were getting their strength from pure composition and texture while his underwater photo remains somehow too scientific: the subjects are generally expressive, the technique is acceptable but the result is not artistic enough and melts in a very classic style, almost copied from others.
Being still in the search of his growing path, he is convinced that there is something new to be created from marine subjects. He looks for a very own style, for something that would open a new era of exploration while lots before him have explored the seas, discovered and described the species. The treasures can be within arm's reach. It might be just a question of thinking differently.
Credits:
B&W exhibitions at the "Salon des Artistes Français" - Grand Palais - Paris
http://www.visualdiving.com/bwart.html
"Photo Journal" in Singapore's Decom'Stop dive magazine
http://www.visualdiving.com/at001_ga04.html
"Underwater wonders in Malaysia" in Singapore's Straits Times
http://www.visualdiving.com/at002_ga04.html
"Sea Safari Cruises" Bali-Sumbawa-Komodo photographic survey
http://www.visualdiving.com/ssbrochure.html
"Bunaken Indonesia" postcards series
http://www.visualdiving.com/postcards.html
"Froggies Divers" brochure
http://www.visualdiving.com/fdbrochure.html
"VisualDiving - Asian underwater and travel stock photography" personal website
http://www.visualdivimg.com
You can email Bertrand Chauvel with your comments and feedback at bertrand@visualdiving.com.
Copyright Information:
All images displayed in this ScubaDuba Exhibition of Bertrand Chauvel's work are copyrighted by Bertrand Chauvel and are displayed by special permission from the photographer. None of these images may be legally reproduced without prior written authorization from Bertrand Chauvel. These photos are not freeware, and copying them to another computer, computer floppy disk or any other medium is strictly prohibited. For any type of usage, please contact Bertrand Chauvel by email at bertrand@visualdiving.com. Violation of these copyright laws will be considered copyright infringement. |
