PAUL GODARD - SOUL PHOTOGRAPHY

Meet Paul Godard and become addicted to his work.

Paul Godard – Interview published in Nikon magazine Vol 1.8 (2006)

Soul Photography that delivers a message of purity, serenity and above all humility for the natural beauty that surrounds us.

Paul is a citizen of the world. Animated by a profound desire to explore beyond the infinite this adventurer listens to the silence of the landscape. The scenery that surrounds him becomes abstract, inevitably leading to meditation. Each image becomes a universe of its own, capturing the essence of how the exterior affects the interior. Each image expresses a daily reflection, a soul search of this restless traveller. The message he delivers is one of purity, serenity and above all humility for the natural beauty that surrounds us.

Read more...

Photography feels like a close relationship

Paul gets his inspiration from the thought of what might be around the corner, at the end of a dirt road, but also from paging through magazines (by the way he never reads, he only looks at the pictures), or even reading a map and imagining the scenery. "In a way it becomes a challenge when a scenery all around you is sublime," explains Paul. "Which photograph are you going to take? A panorama ? A close-up ? If it's flowers, which one is most special ? The shape of this one, the light on that one, the colours of a bunch ? To me photography feels like a close relationship. You enter the landscape and appreciate the obvious, until you become more intimate with it and can start exploring the intricacies."

It's all about the essence

"In fact," he adds, "it's all about capturing the essence. It's a restless search for the best possible image until it matches the image I have in my mind. This can become obsessive, because I know that when it eventually happens, it will be sublime. Practically, this means that I will not go onto one dune, or two dunes, but on all 47 of them ... and beyond. And not once, but four times a day, to make sure that there is not a better version (from a different angle or with a different light) of the already excellent image I have. With my eye (it doesn't need to be on film), the image will be printed in my mind forever. The play of the light is always very important. I still remember two photographs I didn't take; the one in Norway - the moon was shining on a wooden shelter in a meadow with cows; the cows were in the haze and seemed footless. It was surreal. The other was in the States - the last light of sunset accentuated the geometrical shapes in the rocky scenery making it look like an endless piano keyboard. I could still paint them in full colour today. If only my printer had interface straight from my mind ! By shooting these images I can share them with others. My most important work 'Fields of Silence' is exactly this. An active search as I just explained, because it is the most intense expression of myself."

First discoveries

Paul is not a full-time photograper, yet. Thinking back to the time when he first entered this new dimension, he feels it started during his first flight on an airplane. "I must have been 13 or 14. I flew to Tunisia with an aunt and as I looked through the window I was blown away by the thought that there was more to my surroundings than the narrow Belgian scenery. At that moment I realised the infinite potential of my journeys to come. Tunisia also revealed to me that I wasn't interested in photographing monuments or cultural icons. It was the light that captured my attention. Upon my return to Belgium I started photographing sunsets until one day I realized that it was far more interesting to capture the scenery behind me that was lit up by the setting sun, than the sun itself."

Paul doesn't really travel to meet different cultures or visit places. The only thing that matters during a journey is how he will find the image he is looking for. Beauty too is important. "I first travelled to the USA, it was a solo trip with a backpack," Paul remembers. "The vast plains of Monument Valley, the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone. Everything is grand in the States. This three-month trip in 1981 down to Mexico was the first discovery of myself."

"Just before my second stay in the USA from 1991-1992, I felt an urge to fly to Kashmir and Ladhak to spend over a month in the Himalayas. I had always been attracted by the purity of high mountains. Upon my return I left for Washington State where countless opportunities enabled me to explore beyond my wildest dreams the vastness of the land. Many of my best photographs date back to that time. Interestingly enough, between my two USA periods I hardly ever photographed any landscapes. The main focus was on my studies for my PhD in science and ecology; the photography I did during that time, solely in Europe, was more detail focused : the infinitesimal."

Overland from Brussels to Cape Point

From 1994 to 1998 one of the most important phases in Paul's life took place; his overland expedition from Brussels to Cape Point. This journey along The Great Rift Valley in East Africa was a dream come true to slake his adventurous thirst. "At last I was entering the map that I had been studying for years. The imaginary scenery was coming to real life. I had the opportunity to enter the unknown and discover some of the wildest regions in the world. It was a one-way-ticket with no return and the start of a never-ending journey." It was during this expedition that he shot the third series of the Shantz photographs. Shantz is an American botanist who photographed the same locations throughout Eastern Africa in 1921 and 1958 to monitor the effect of human interference on the environment. Another 37 years later, the original photographs in hand, Paul searched and found these locations and produced the next set. Backed-up with interesting research on the evolution of these areas and their people, this project is evoking a keen interest.

Meditation through photography

What turns him on ? Why is photography such a passion ? "It shows my spiritual side, one that I can only express through photography. I would say that it induces a supreme state of meditation. I connect to myself to such a degree that I rise to a higher state. I become one with myself and the universe. Quite often, people viewing my work get into a state of meditation too. Photography soothes my soul. Sometimes I experience immense joy through it, like when I was in the Himalayas, the beauty of the scenery that surrounded me made me feel so intensely touched that it made me cry."

Film versus digital

As a teenager he started with Konica then moved to Pentax and eventually converted to Nikon. That was 25 years ago... Of all his Nikons, the D2X to him is revolutionary. "At the time of my D1X my heart still felt sore to put the F5 aside, I kept on having some reservations to make the digital leap," he confesses. "Since my D2X I work with digital only. I feel that for my type of photography it doesn't really make a difference anymore. And there are such undeniable advantages : with my laptop I can immediately check and control the results, logistics and consequently the production time for any job is shortened dramatically because there is no lab processing involved, not to mention the elimination of loss of or damage to slides. I no longer become hysterical because of scratches or fingerprints. Equally important to me is the huge progress that is being made with multimedia projectors. Of course projecting slides is still better, especially on a mega screen, but it's a mission and again, an added risk factor for damage or loss, especially when you have a tendency to drop the box. Also, multimedia projectors offer so many more possibilities. The downside of digital ? In the old days I took one photograph and I knew whether it would be good or not, and I'd take a back-up photograph when it was. Today, I can't refrain from taking too many variations of one shot knowing that it doesn't matter. So basically, the time I save on processing is now used on editing, and actually takes longer."

Fine-tuning the type of assignments

Paul started Gondwana with his wife 13 years ago; from being non-stop on the road working for ngo's, their company's focus has sharpened to multimedia photographic and design projects, mainly in tourism and wine. He now works from his self-designed home called Cocagne in Gordon's Bay near Cape Town. It is located right at the edge of a nature reserve overlooking the sea and the mountains. "It's absolutely fantastic," Paul smiles, "I would never survive daily trips to an office in town. I'm not a people's person, and even less a city hopper. Fortunately, many of our clients enjoy visiting us at the studio and savoring the natural beauty of our surroundings. I find it very rewarding to be able to express my artistic side through creative layouts that support the marketing of our clients, and then of course there is the commercial photography which currently concentrates on tourism and wine. We're fine-tuning the type of assignments from commercial clients so that I can spend as much time as possible photographing subjects that are closest to my heart. I'd love to focus more on landscapes or even get more involved in environment and conservancy." He's also exhibiting more of his personal work. So far he had the opportunity to exhibit in Brussels, Paris, Washington, Harare and Cape Town. "It just amazes me to see how many people identify with the images I capture."