honorable mention
Valérie Chauffour france
title
Smoking Area
Raised around planes thanks to her father, who was first in the French Air Force and then made the switch to civil aviation at the Dole-Tavaux airport in the Jura region, she destined herself to a career in aviation very early on.
She became a glider pilot as early as age 16. Unfortunately, her education goals were thwarted by a mathematics teacher and she finally attended a business school in Strasbourg, France. Her school allowed her to get to know Air France from the inside through summer jobs as a flight attendant. Talking to pilots, she realized there was still a way she could become a pilot! She thus followed and passed a stringent self-training program in order to get hired by Air France.
She also discovered photography during her academic years. She bought her first film SLR, a used Canon AE1P, during a stopover in Tokyo. This marked the beginning of a new passion, which naturally led her into travel photography.
Throughout her career as an airline pilot, Valerie enjoyed atmospheres, landscapes and encounters with other cultures. Over the years, her eye got keener and her interest for modern and contemporary art deepened. Photography came to occupy a major place in her life.
By the end of 2014, she decided to fully devote herself to photography and resigned from her job as an Airbus A320 Captain.
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entry description
The series was shot in the streets of Tokyo at night. I was on the sidewalk looking at the smoking area from outside, and I found the movement of the people inside this glass cube, shaped by city lights and shadows, pretty mesmerizing.about the photographer
Valerie Chauffour was born in 1963 and lives in Paris.Raised around planes thanks to her father, who was first in the French Air Force and then made the switch to civil aviation at the Dole-Tavaux airport in the Jura region, she destined herself to a career in aviation very early on.
She became a glider pilot as early as age 16. Unfortunately, her education goals were thwarted by a mathematics teacher and she finally attended a business school in Strasbourg, France. Her school allowed her to get to know Air France from the inside through summer jobs as a flight attendant. Talking to pilots, she realized there was still a way she could become a pilot! She thus followed and passed a stringent self-training program in order to get hired by Air France.
She also discovered photography during her academic years. She bought her first film SLR, a used Canon AE1P, during a stopover in Tokyo. This marked the beginning of a new passion, which naturally led her into travel photography.
Throughout her career as an airline pilot, Valerie enjoyed atmospheres, landscapes and encounters with other cultures. Over the years, her eye got keener and her interest for modern and contemporary art deepened. Photography came to occupy a major place in her life.
By the end of 2014, she decided to fully devote herself to photography and resigned from her job as an Airbus A320 Captain.
back to gallery