Three months ago I found in a suitcase I left in Liège (Belgium) a dozen of films from 2014. For this forgotten essay I used rolls of Ilford Pan 100 and a point-and-shoot film camera: the Leica Mini-Zoom. I wanted to make my photographic process easier. It was reminding me when I started photographing with a point-and-shoot camera I borrowed from my girlfriend 12 years before. At this time I didn’t even know
who Cartier-Bresson or Winogrand were ! Here’s the story about Ruins From The Old Wood.

Using a point-and-shoot camera is really not the same to me than shooting with a rangefinder camera. I just have to frame and to click the button, no need to think about settings or results. The only problem is that a lot of photos were totally failed because of that low-speed film I had chosen. Northern France where I come from and Belgium are known to be cloudy yet!

The project’s name is from one of the first photo I shot: a chalk graffiti on Saint-Lambert Square in Liège. It was written “Les Ruines du Vieux-Monde”: Ruins of the Old World. I didn’t say “Yeah, let’s make a project called Ruins of …”. These words stayed on my mind for months and I remembered them when I edited more than 400 pictures. Choice was easy: there was a lot of blurry and totally failed pictures and a lot with friends and party people.

Nowadays I’m still wandering and I’m shooting in color. You can see that on my tumblr portfolio.

About Nathanaël:

I’m a 34 year old photographer from France. Walking around France, Corsica and Belgium with only one little bag and my dog and my film cameras, I catch moments of everyday life and street scenes. Photography allows me to wander all the day, to meet people in any place, to have a talk with anyone. to loose myself in big cities. It’s my best reason for not having a full-time job. I’m living in Wanderland… 

To know more about Nathanaël, please visit his official website and follow him on Facebook and Tumblr.