I decided to write about photography on my blog. I am a writer first, but I believe that an image/photograph is worth a thousand words; hence, I want to combine writing and photography whenever I can. In this present post, I want to talk about one of my photography series: the Coffee Shop Series.

About this Series

The Coffee Shop Series started with this one: Tigress in the Jungle. I think we were in the fall of 2017. I had no intentions or plans on starting a series of pictures. I was lacking inspiration and was frustrated because I hadn’t taken pictures in so long. I wanted to evolve and change my photography style and gain skills. However, I couldn’t practice because I had no idea what pictures to take. I just couldn’t do it. 

One day, I went to the Leaves Café in downtown Montreal and things suddenly changed. I was with my friend and model, Sylande, and we were working on some artistic project. At some point, we took a break and I decided to use my camera and take pictures of the café. It’s a small and cozy coffee shop and I thought, why not take pictures of the cute plants they sell, of the decorations, the lights, etc. Then, I asked my friend to sit at the counter, to read a book, to close her eyes… What was cool was that her clothes matched the café’s setting at the time. While I was asking her to put her hands up and to move, I was expecting people around us to stare at us, since the café is very small, but no one did. It felt like we were in our own world and I wanted to capture that: those movements and emotions in a quiet, calm setting without anyone reacting. It would have been a different thing if I had asked the people to not look at Sylande. In our case, they were so wrapped up in their own world that it seemed like different worlds took place in that same place. The photoshoot all came together naturally. The plants and the green tones found at Leaves, as well as the tiger on my friend’s sweater, inspired the title. She was the tigress, being herself completely, without makeup. She was moving fearlessly in a little crowd that could fear her if they were looking, but they weren’t. Maybe they didn’t dare to look.

The present series then inspired me to take pictures of other people in their favourite coffee shop with their favourite clothes on. I want to capture little moments in underrated places, people being themselves and comfortable, and see how they react or behave in a given setting.

Tigress in the Jungle will remain the most natural, unexpected, and meaningful photoshoot of the Coffee Shop Series.