Photographer spotlight: Elsa Maret
A note from Elsa:
I’m not a good photographer, I just have a few good shots.
I first picked up a film camera because I fantasised about the idea of the click count it made. Throughout the years, I mostly photographed still life with my film camera. I found people’s expressions hard to capture and instead, preferred taking my camera on a walk with me.
When my camera was getting old and I had purchased the iPhone 8, that’s when I started to enjoy pushing the boundaries of what I could do with a phone camera. I wanted to capture the perfectly symmetrical shot with just the right lighting. I roamed the streets of Montreal with both cameras for a while, testing each one in different scenarios. Photography encourages me to look up as I walk, look at details in the streets, and not stare down at my feet. A whole new world would open up as soon as I walked outside.
In time, I was consumed with posting my pictures so Instagram, refreshing to see how many likes and comments I had. Deleting a photo when the out was too low. Now, I still pick up my camera when I go out, I just stay off social media. It’s much less draining.
