Who am I?

 

I have been passionate about the creative process since my early childhood. My mother, a passionate and multi-talented craftswoman, passed on her knowledge to me and helped broaden my artistic horizons.

 

As a teenager, I became fascinated by fashion and art. For a long time, I believed that photography was out of reach because it was too complex and, above all, too expensive. My first "real" camera was a Minolta X-700. I was then studying film at Laval University, still fascinated by photography and in the midst of discovering the 7th Art. What a marvel at the time, my Minolta! As soon as I left the used camera fair, film in hand, camera loaded, I rushed to take pictures of everything I encountered on my way, playing with the "buttons" of my new toy. A new passion was born.

 

I focused on portraits and landscapes for the first few years. Wanting to take my passion a little further, I got myself an OMEGA photo enlarger and then, piece by piece, I bought my first darkroom photo printing "kit". When I made my clever mixes and finally opened my red light for the first time, I was jubilant: I realized that everything I had learned in the 18 books I had read was indeed true and that there really was an image that appeared at the end of the process! Hours and hours of pleasure then passed in the darkroom... In 2006, I put my Minolta aside to discover the joys of digital. My OMEGA enlarger gave way to Photoshop. I then began to explore a new way to express myself in my passion, which would take a lot of my time, my patience (that of my loved ones too ;))) and my space: studio photography. Since then, I have been constantly working to improve my technique and acquire more and more efficient equipment. I have always been and always will be self-taught. I am still proud to say that I learned everything about photography by myself, from A to Z. I don't see the hours go by as soon as I walk through the door of my studio, have my camera in my hands and open my "flashes" to start a new photo shoot.

 

What I love most is personalizing each of my sessions based on my clients' needs and concerns. Contact me for more details; I'd be delighted to hear from you.

 

Chantal Goupil / Shantell photographer