STATEMENT OF INTENT
An instant can be defined in several ways: a very short period of time, the present moment, or a specific point in time. Throughout our lives, we experience countless moments, but only some of them leave a lasting impression, often because they are connected to strong emotions. It is one of these particular moments that I wanted to capture in my series: that instant when nature seems to hold an almost magical quality, when we feel that these landscapes go beyond our reality. As if, for just a moment, we were witnessing a fantastical world.
I have always been drawn to imagination and to those worlds that escape our everyday reality. Through this photographic series, I therefore sought to capture those moments when nature seems to come close to the magical. For this purpose, I chose the Buttes-Chaumont Park in Paris, a place where vegetation takes over. In late autumn, on a sunny day, I captured scenes bathed in soft, golden light between 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. This winter light, ideal for evoking a dreamlike atmosphere, creates the impression that these magical moments can only exist within a very specific moment in time. I used an iPhone 11 for its ability to capture vivid and luminous colors, as well as because it was an accessible tool that suited my unpredictable path through the park. The second and final photographs were taken in front of a lake and a stream, elements that would have been more difficult to access with a larger camera. My choice of equipment was also consistent with the next step of the process: adding digital drawings to my photographs. In each image, I digitally drew fantastical creatures using my iPad and Procreate, incorporating them into the natural environment as if they were its secret guardians.
The choice of a 1:1 aspect ratio reflects my intention to create autonomous and harmonious images, where each photograph becomes a world of its own. Each image stands on its own as a fleeting moment in which nature briefly reveals a fantastical secret. For example, in the photograph featuring the bridge and aquatic dragons, the creatures interact with the landscape, creating a narrative dynamic, while the bridge becomes a symbolic link between reality and imagination.
Each photograph was carefully composed to integrate the magical elements naturally, without creating a visual rupture with the surrounding environment. In the first photograph, the framing centers on the tree, while the magical creatures integrated between its branches create a sense of visual movement. The creatures’ colors draw from autumnal palettes—greens, yellows, and oranges—to maintain visual harmony and create a dreamlike effect inspired by Impressionism. In the third photograph, for example, the mystical deer is blue like the sky, while the birds combined with flying manta rays are orange like the tree, and the small bush-like creature is green like the surrounding vegetation, creating a palette that blends naturally with the environment.
To unify the series, I added a subtle grain and adjusted the brightness, whites, and saturation. The grain, in particular, provides a texture that is both practical, helping to integrate the creatures into the background, and symbolic: it evokes an almost unreal moment, as if it had been frozen in time.
Each photograph captures a moment in which the natural and the fantastical meet harmoniously. My series, Fragments of a Hidden World, invites the viewer to contemplate nature and allow themselves to be carried away by an extraordinary vision. It portrays fleeting moments in which the fantastical quietly emerges from the natural world, and imagination comes to life, if only for a moment.