#3 | Marion Colombani, Photographer of the present moment

Welcome to POING FORT, the podcast that will give you the weapons of self-confidence. In this first season, 10 guests remove the mask to speak to us frankly about the failures and doubts they had to overcome to achieve their ambitions.

KIRA EAR SCULPTURE

In this episode number 3, I have the pleasure of meeting Marion Colombani, a gentle and sensitive photographer who takes pleasure in capturing the most precious moments of her clients' lives.

Passionate about the visual arts since her childhood, she has struggled to navigate between the expectations of those around her and the universal question “what am I going to do with my life?”. Everything changed the day she discovered photography and the world of weddings; a domain perfectly in keeping with his love for flowers, beautiful materials and travel.

I hope that this meeting with Marion will transport you to a world of gentleness and sensitivity. She will tell you that life throws opportunities your way that you must know how to seize.

Margaux:  You told me that your parents had high expectations. How did you manage that? How did you build yourself?

I think that pushed me more than anything else and I was very complimented on the fact that I was a curious, very autonomous person, that came up often. And it's true that there were a lot of expectations but I was also very pushed. It was still quite benevolent. But it’s true that there were lots of things I couldn’t see myself doing. Higher education, and what it potentially led to, didn't interest me. Doing Sciences Po, I didn't see the purpose or the interest of it.

ITO FIST RING

Margaux: Today you work for big brands and you also have a wedding business. How do you find a balance between the two? What is the nature of your activity as a photographer?

It's true that I do a lot of weddings, because I realized that I liked capturing things rather than staging them. When I started school, I wanted to do fashion because that was also the image it conveyed and we were discouraged from doing something else on the side, because it was frowned upon. If we wanted to work with big brands, we needed a little prestige, we didn't have to get married. Or at least it had to be hidden. And it's true that I quickly took a little counter-foot about this thing, telling myself: I like marriage, there's no reason for me to hide it. It's not shameful. It's true that it's something that I like to do and now, for two years, it's really my main activity.

KIRA EAR SCULPTURE - KIRA EAR RING

Margaux : You told me that apparently, we rather expect it to be a man who photographs this type of event, have you faced sexism throughout your career?

Yes, it's little things, but for example , you often have the cliché of the uncle who comes to see you at the wedding to teach you a little bit how to use your camera. People often come to see you to talk to you about equipment or to say: “There’s a great photo to take there, you should go there!”. In this case, you say yes, and then you don't do it. It's always men, it's never women who allow themselves to make this kind of remark.

ITO POINT RING

Margaux: Is there a subject you would like to explore?

I've talked a lot about the fight against sexism. But if there is perhaps one point that annoys me , it's always this thing of ageism and the representation of women past a certain age. This really needs to change. I see women that I know, who are my age and who are in commercials where they play mothers of teenagers who are supposed to be 45, 50 years old. It's never 45-year-old or 50-year-old women on screen. There is always this thing: the woman must be young and if she is not young, she is a little outdated . 

I see it when I shoot a person who is 35 years old, 40 years old, if she has small defects on her face, small marks, little things, she will ask me to retouch, whereas for me, my DNA is to do precisely very natural things. And it's true that as soon as we see small defects that we're not used to seeing on screen or in photos, it immediately becomes annoying. I would like that to change. But it's a bit like the snake biting its tail, because it's difficult to find women who allow themselves to be photographed really as they are after a certain age.