I had the pleasure of sending the talented Victoria Audouard some questions about her work.

Click to see Victoria’s feature on The Flying Fruit Bowl!

1.      Tell us a bit about yourself…

So far I am 22 and I live in France. I love tea, rain and the seaside.

2.      Did you study photography or are you self taught?

So far I own an HND in graphic design, and had a few film photography and photoshop courses too, but really just the basics. I have had to learn the rest all by myself.

3.      What is the appeal of photography?

I think photography helps expressing myself in another way than with words. I am someone much more comfortable with pictures, speaking makes me extremely ill-at-ease.

4.      Where do you go/what do you do to be inspired?

I listen to music, I talk to my friends, I travel around. I pretty much think that inspiration is all around but the more you look for it, the less you find it.

5.      I think your work is very beautiful and I love how textured and layered your images are. Is there a particular process you go through to create these images?

Yes, there is. I combine my digital photographs with elements from my film pictures, all this being done with the help of software such as Photoshop.

6.      What camera do you use?

I take all my pictures using digital cameras, for my clients I use a reflex Nikon D3100, and for my personal pictures I use a compact, the Nikon coolpix s9200. For my film pictures I used a Fujica reflex camera I got from my uncle. I am really attached to it, since my uncle died a few years ago and it is the only thing I have kept from him, along with a Polaroid camera.

7.      What kind of music do you like and does it influence your work?

Sooo many. I love Cat Power, Lykke Li, Alela Diane, Eels, Regina Spektor and lately I have been listening a lot Asaf Avidan’s album “Different Pulses”. I think it absolutely influence my work. In music as in photographic, it’s all about, whether it is by using sounds, lyrics, words or pictures, creating a world and a universe, and delivering a message.

8.      Do you think that there is a limit to how much post processing should be done on one image?

Yes, and no. It is hard for me to tell since I know that without processing, I may not have gone so far in my work and some pictures I took and edited would not exist. We know so many different things nowadays with modern art that it doesn’t seem that we know any limits in anything, including post processing.

9.      What, in your opinion, makes a good image?

The framing, the light, the model, the elements you include, the way you edit it but most importantly I think is how much you commit yourself and put a part of you in the image you create. For me a good image doesn’t need to be breathtaking, it just needs to be different and whether intelligent or instinctive.

10.  Do you think that photographers have a duty to tell the truth with their images?

Yes, no, maybe ? I think however that if you want to tell the truth with a picture, you just take a random picture with a random camera. Somehow, I believe every picture is both a lie and a truth.

11.  What is your one favorite image from another photographer and why?

I couldn’t pick one particular picture so I guess I would just pick one artist, and it is Sarah Moon. I am just an absolutely lover of her work, I love the way she talks about water, women and death, like lonely and beautiful creatures.

12.  Do you plan out your images or are you quite spontaneous?

A funny fact is that I always plan out my images, but most of the time in the end they never look like what I had expected in the first place.

13.  What is your favorite image you have taken and why?

It is a picture I named “polynesia 81”, it is a bit of my own personal story with the sea and the story of my family who has lived in French Polynesia for a little while. When I was kid, there was not a confusion but an amalgam between the two places, to me going to the seaside was like going to Polynesia. This picture is also about all the things that I am expressing and feeling : solitude, childhood, memories, water. The colors were inspired by all the paintings of Gauguin that my grand mother is hanging at her place, probably to remember her Polynesia now she is back to France.

14.  If there were no restrictions, what would be your dream photo shoot?

I already feel like I don’t have much restrictions thanks to nowadays softwares. To be honest, I have no idea what my dream photo shoot would be like. It would probably be a year-long photo shoot, with something I could take a picture of everyday.

15.  If you could take an image of anyone, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

I have been fascinated by a story in my family about my grand-grand mother whose name was Augustine and who had never seen the sea. I would love to take a picture of her on her first moment in the seaside.

16.  On average, how long do you spend post processing your images?

It depends ! I can take me from 20 minutes if I am instantly satisfied to 1, maybe 2 hours. Once it took me six months.

17.  Do you think that the availability of such a range of cameras is a good thing? Do you think that it yields everyone to believe that they are photographers?

To me the problem isn’t that much about the range of cameras (I can say, I have been using a compact and still am), the fact that all these cameras are pretty affordable to everyone is what could make many people believe they are photographers. But yet once again, what makes me a photographer more than anyone else ?

18.  Describe your photography in one sentence..

I would actually be a little cheater and pick someone’s else sentence, a quote from a French writer Anatole France saying “En amour comme en Art, l’instinct suffit. In Art as in love, instinct is enough.”

19.  Do you know of any photographers that you would recommend to be featured on this blog?

I know so many awesome photographers ! I love Erica Coburn, Marie Dücker, Anita Sadowska, Chloé LDN….

20.  Do you have any advice for aspiring photographers?

A very good friend of mine told me once “Do what you love, love what you do”. No matter the rest of the world.