My Wonderland – The Leica digital camera Weblog

Cédric Roux travelled to the Huge Apple in the course of the pandemic, to “hunker down” and take pictures. With a twinkle in his eye, he captures the mundane oddities, which in any other case would possibly slip by unnoticed. His “wonderland” is a photographic paradise made up of straightforward normality, pulsing existence and fixed change.

What fascinates you about New York?
I’ve had a robust curiosity within the USA and extra notably in New York Metropolis, since I used to be a youngster. This curiosity for America comes firstly from my attraction to American basketball, and my love for the cinema rapidly refocused me on New York, as a result of it’s used as a setting for a lot of movies, whether or not previous or fashionable. For me, New York actually seems to be the town the place every thing is feasible and that by no means stops. New York and the New Yorkers are fascinating as a result of they don’t care what you consider them; they’re true to themselves.

What did you deal with for this photographic challenge?
My challenge on New York could be very easy: I simply wish to put the highlight on this, my photographic paradise. Each 50 metres, there may be the potential of one thing occurring that pursuits me. Nevertheless, the thought for the title solely happened through the pandemic. Certainly, locked up at house, I spotted that New York can be the best place if I needed to keep “caught” someplace.

What would you like your photos to point out?
Via my work, I attempt to present individuals the issues they don’t take the time to see. I prefer to seize the joyful incident when every thing falls into place naturally, but in addition the little issues in life, easy, with out in search of complicated compositions, simply life.

Your collection additionally displays a twinkle in your eye in relation to the Huge Apple…
I feel that each metropolis can supply humorous scenes. In my view, it’s extra the overall way of thinking of the photographer and his capability to play together with his atmosphere, that may produce the type of photographs that make you smile. The benefit of NYC at all times comes again to this: the alternatives are extra quite a few due to the incessant exercise and the weather of the repeated situations.

You shot with Leica Q and Q2. How did they fit your challenge?
Not being a {hardware} geek, I discovered that the Q vary is the best digital camera for my observe. Compact, mild, and really discreet, it’s good to cross unnoticed within the crowd. Its response pace can be an incomparable asset.

How do you place your photographs in the fitting “mild”?
I’m not an enormous fan of sitting in entrance of my laptop processing my photographs in Lightroom; so I do my finest to get close to to optimum settings after I’m on the road. Then, I spend lower than two minutes processing a picture. I at all times add a little bit little bit of luminosity, and luminance, and alter the colors barely; however all that is very quick.

Road pictures additionally usually means “ready”…
I don’t keep locked right into a single method to road pictures. Generally I discover a body and await the weather to return collectively earlier than I launch the shutter; however I’m not very affected person, so I are inclined to go in search of scenes whereas strolling to fulfill the themes. Out of the 60 photographs in My Wonderland, there are 5 photographs most the place I waited for every thing to slot in the body as I wished.

After creating your collection, is New York nonetheless a wonderland for you?
It stays my photographic paradise; and with the buildup of my occasions in NY, I do know the place to be at such or such a time of day to benefit from the mild, or the numerous comings and goings of individuals. I’ve realized concerning the habits of New Yorkers and it’s a particular benefit to proceed to progress and be extra environment friendly on location.

Cédric Roux is a French photographer based mostly in Paris. His preliminary expertise with road pictures is tied to New York Metropolis, the place he first began to familiarise himself with the act and the idea of road pictures. Since that day, he continues photographing, engaged on collection and tasks round his day by day life and occasional journeys. He has been working with Leica since 2017 and reveals his work in cities all around the globe. In June he printed his e-book, My Wonderland – a photographic journey round Manhattan, from Central Park to down-town (Editions Odyssée). Discover out extra about his pictures on his web site and Instagram web page.