TITLE: Vénus

This series of photos represent the feminine beauty of the body, through the eyes of a woman. I tried to illustrate the abstract, yet beautiful, connexion that I have with femininity as I am discovering womanhood. I did this photoshoot on 35mm black and white film, that I developed myself. This is probably the creation I am most proud of; it reflects who I am, and my perception of art. The absence of identity really directs the attention on details such as the contrast of the shades and the movement of the body, making the subjects more interesting. The title, "Vénus", is a reference to the goddess of beauty in Roman mythology, which represent perfectly what I tried to portrayed in these pictures.

AUTHOR: Mahaut Duret (Canada)

My name is Mahaut Duret, I am an 18 years old girl and I live in Quebec. I grew up with an artist dad who always have loved art in all its forms, encouraging me to create as much as I wanted. As a child, I was into drawing and painting, and as I got older, I got into poetry and photography too. I then decided to mixed both; incorporating poetry in my photos. My creativity has always been a big part of my personality, and I could not imagine a futur where this creativity was not being put into action. I am in my second year of cegep in Arts, Literature and Communication, where I take photography classes. I discovered the art of black and white film photography earlier this year and I completely fell in love with it. I take pictures a lot, trying to illustrate all the ideas I have in mind or the emotions that I am feeling, because I truly believe that art is a reflection of the mind. I have always been a very sensitive and emotional person. I grew up with a heart overflowed with empathy and love. Trying to control my emotion or even just understanding them, was very difficult for me, and art really helped me expressing these feelings more precisely and in an artistic way. Both in photography and drawing, my focus has always been more around humans, portraying them in a way that conveys a message, a deeper meaning. More precisely, my goal is to give a voice and a fair recognition to women. Feminism is an important topic for me and I will never stop fighting for it. Photography leaves space for me to be creative and to act, in a really strong and loud way. My dream is to become a correspondant photojournalist, providing my own articles and my own photographs. I want the world to see what is going on around them, and to give a voice to those who don't even have the freedom of speech. I hope that my photography will provide success, not just for me but for women around the world. As an 18 years old girl, I feel so powerless, but yet so full of motivation and determination. I want my life to impact other people in the best way possible. I want to make a difference. I am tired of living in a "me, myself and I" type of society, with people that don't even care anymore about anything other than money, and who are so detached from reality. Seeing that photography is slowly being replaced by AI, is one of the main reason why I decided to do this, with the hope of keeping this art living.