We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Romuald Pliquet. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Romuald below.
Romuald, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?
the golden age of surf photography was mostly in the 90s/2000s. Brands and magazines at the time did not hesitate to send you to the four corners of the world to photograph surfers at their expense. Surf trips were also in vogue at that time with the heyday of vhs. Today all this is over or at least the floodgates are closed. The global economic difficulties in several sectors, including the surfing industry, no longer make it possible to continue benefiting from these advantages. Today, the photographer must be a full-time active player if he wants to live fully from his work. It is now in direct competition with social networks and the new quio technologies now provide easy access to photography and video. Despite the fact that the photographic product has never been so much a part of our society, the work of the photographer has never been so paradoxically in danger. It becomes very hard to live solely from photography. That’s why recently I opened an art gallery dedicated to surfing. Surfing is a culture, not a product!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I was riding for Naish and after the sessions I stayed to take pictures to stay longer at the edge of the ocean. My photos quickly began to be used to enhance communications at Naish; from that moment I thought that maybe I had an eye so I moved to Tahiti where there I knew the famous Code Red. That day, one of my photos was selected for the XXL BIG WAVES AWARDS and then everything happened for me! Successive selections for the awards and the dream tour. At the time, very few of us photographed underwater in the Teahupo’o line up. Today, I don’t even go into the water there anymore since there are too many people with waterhousing and especially GoPro. The moose side of the aquatic photo has lost almost all its meaning even if some still manage to do extraordinary things there. Teahupo’o changed my life and I can’t thank him enough. Its paradisiacal environment mixed with the savagery and the splendor of the wave make it a unique place in the world. Everything is wonderful there! The inhabitants of the veil, the locals, the lagoons, the mountains and of course the waves! Pipeline is my reference in the ultimate wave but it’s a different atmosphere! At Pipeline, you have to hone your skills to show the surf community that there is a place for you, there is a career challenge. At Teahupo’o, a wave can also change your life of course, but there is more side of communion with all that surrounds you
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
The advice I can give is above all not to give too much importance to social networks since very often it is disconnecting from reality. There are a multitude of surf photographer profiles and for some with followers to make Kim Kardashian pale and yet in the industry we don’t even know who knows and or does not work for anyone in the industry, all of this is confusing and devoid of direction but unfortunately it is the current society… I have never been too addicted to these networks but like everyone it is necessary to be there so I play the game and it amuses me but the day when I I got my Instagram account hacked after 10 years of sharing, well, strangely, I put it into perspective. Many of my fellow photographers contacted me to find out how this happened and reacted as if the world was ending. That day I understood that there were more important things than losing followers built after 10 years of presence and I concentrated again on my work and my projects by no longer thinking about the number of followers or likes that I can have after each publication. The eye must remain riveted in the viewfinder and not in its iphone somehow… Some of us almost make it a reason to live, it’s sad and meaningless…
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
The primary goal is to do something that makes you happy. Recently, I opened my own gallery which is dedicated to surfing and its culture. There are of course my photos but also other artists from different horizons and articles from on collectors. I know it’s a risky bet since surfing isn’t for everyone, but I do what I love. I have a gallery, I hope, that looks like me and that’s a great satisfaction in my life as an ocean and surf lover. I now hope with this gallery to be able to escape again to other horizons to go and photograph big waves since that’s what makes me vibrate. Being able to chase the big swells with the riders is a unique thing. During big sessions, no one says anything, everyone is in their bubble and yet everyone has come to seek the charge of emotion and sensations. It’s like it’s taboo to say a word, it’s very strange. It comes close to a feeling of love. It’s as if we were in love with a person but we don’t dare say it but we just have to look at each other’s eyes to understand. So yeah, there’s no point in saying a word.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://romualdpliquet.com/fr/accueil
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/romuald.pliquet/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100050376165017
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/romuald-pliquet-99bb4451/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/RPliquet
- Other: https://galerieromualdpliquet.com/fr/accueil
Image Credits
romuald pliquet photography