For the simple pleasure of telling a story I know well…
Born in Canada, raised in the south of France and having spent the first fifteen years of my adult life in the Caribbean, I’ve had many an opportunity to flirt with our world and its most amazingly diverse scenery. My love of photography goes back to the day I got my hands on my first camera at age twelve, a second-hand Zeiss Ikon rangefinder. Ever since, I have chased light everywhere I go, in an attempt to record through my photography the essence of so many places in which I keep leaving a little bit of myself.
I find it most extraordinary to look back and witness the exponential growth of a photography industry that had been almost dormant for decades and has suddenly exploded in a frenzy of technological breakthroughs. This is a fantastic time to be a photographer.
Textures and shapes, and above all the many moods of light have always fascinated me. I probably enjoy traveling with my camera in hand more than anything else in life. (Apart from paragliding, of course. And walking around with Marie. And scuba diving. And computers. And James Bond movies. And Clairette de Die. And Tolkien’s books. And swearing in French…)
Different countries and cultures keep the mind curious and the senses alert. And when our mind is open, the world becomes a never-ending spectacle begging to be photographed, a swirling story unfolding around us and to which we can never be indifferent. My goal is to tell that story, in pictures and in words, hoping to find an angle that will captivate and inspire. The pictures in these galleries reflect my path to this day, about nineteen years of travels since my conversion to digital photography.
The first version of this web site was originally created from Little Cayman and through a slow modem connection. Since I used to be more productive during the second half of the day, I spent many, many nights at the computer. With a mandatory stretch every two hours or so, I would just step out on my porch and stare at the Caribbean sky, listening to the ocean a stone’s throw away.
After later living in Vancouver, BC, I’m now based in New York City where I have been for over fifteen years, and this is probably the tenth or fifteenth generation of the site. I hope you’ll enjoy it.
It is best viewed with a great deal of tolerance, a few cups of coffee, dimmed ambient lights and the maximum screen resolution you can squeeze out of your browser and monitor.
Where life will take my wife Marie and I, I do not know yet. I just know it will be brilliant, and extensively photographed. Video might also make increasingly frequent appearances.
Welcome, and enjoy the site!
Vincent Mounier