Today's FlakPhoto: Mériol Lehman
I'm trying something new — Does it work? Let me know what you think.
Everything old is new again.
Back in the day, I published a photography blog called FlakPhoto. Does anyone remember that? The premise was simple: I showed a photo-a-day and linked to that photographer’s website. That kind of thing feels old-fashioned in our current era of so much Instagram. Still, I started writing this newsletter because I needed something to offset my social media addiction, and I sometimes wonder if we should spend more time outside the app looking longer at photographers’ websites. Know what I mean?
I want to do something akin to the old FlakPhoto here from time to time: short-form posts that turn you onto an imagemaker you might not have known about previously. Does that sound interesting? Let me know what you think.
Today’s FlakPhoto is from Mériol Lehman, a Swiss photographer based in Quebec. Mériol makes many images, and you can explore his projects on his website. I associate him with rural landscapes and aerial views like the one at the top of this post. I asked him about this picture. He replied:
This is located in the middle of Réserve faunique des Laurentides, which is a national reserve here in Quebec. To go to my parents’ family farm, I have to drive through it, a 2-hour ride (actually, my parents live 5 hours up north of Montreal, but the 2-hour ride is the time it takes to cross the reserve.) All along this ride, there’s nothing but boreal forest, except a gas station in the middle. Since the highway goes through the Laurentian Mountains, the weather is quite different from where my parents live, with snow arriving much earlier.
When you are driving there, all you can see on either side of the road are pine trees, larches, and lakes. Of course, in the boreal forest, there are a lot of bogs like this one, but usually, we can’t see them from the road. This one was completely hidden from the road, and even if I had driven this road several times a year for 40 years, I'd never doubted it could be there. A few hundred feet from there, there’s a highway splitting, going to two different cities, and I decided to take the drone to shoot the highway. Here’s the shot:
When I decided to bring the drone back, I discovered this awesome place. A few weeks later, I decided to fly there again because of the autumn colors, and this is the photograph I’ve sent. Usually, I’m more interested in landscapes where we can see the human traces on the landscape. But this time, I was really impressed by the sheer beauty of the place.
He’s right; it’s a gorgeous place. And knowing this wild beauty still exists out there is encouraging. Mériol is on Instagram, and you should certainly follow him there but do make some time to look at his website. There’s a lot to see there.
Thoughts?
I assume many of you tune in here for longer-form material and might find this lacking in the depth you want from a newsletter. Tell me what you think about this concept: Is it another inbox interruption or an opportunity to see something new outside Instagram’s algorithmic grip?
As always, if you make pictures and want to show something of yours here, please drop me a line. I’m always looking and love seeing new work. Cheers!
Yes, short-form posts that turn us onto an imagemaker we might not have known about previously sounds very interesting to me. And in fact the most appealing. We’re overloaded with information these days and anything long form is getting harder and harder to have time to enjoy. Anything short, but good, is most likely to gain my attention.
I think it's a great idea. While social media is a necessary evil these days, Marketing 101 is still get people to your website first. You can get to know a photographer, their style and what they offer by spending time on their website much better than scrolling social media posts.