TITLE: Backlight

Two young Himbas along the Kunene river, at sundown. Taken in May 2021 during our bivouac along the river

AUTHOR: Xavier HAVAUX (Belgium)

I’m a Belgian amateur photographer. I started very young, as I was only 8 years old when my father explained me how to use the Leica M2 of my grand-father. From that time, I did mainly black and white pictures in a way I can say that “I see " in black and white. When the digital cameras appeared, I continued to use my argentic cameras (Nikon F3 and F4s) for few years. For several (mostly bad) reasons, I stopped to take pictures for pleasure and that’s only in 2010 that I came back to photography, this time with digital cameras and mainly for professional purposes (still no real fun to take pictures). In 2014, on the occasion of my first trip to Namibia, I re-opened my mind to photography for pleasure and especially to black and white pictures. Since that time, I travelled mainly in Africa and I definitively came back to my first love : black and white pictures! And that’s again really a great pleasure for me! Basically I consider that I’m mostly a travel photographer, interested by nature, landscapes (including nightscapes), local people in their local environment (especially kids). Most of my pictures are highly contrasted, as is life! You can follow my travels at www.reveler-linstant.be