From her childhood in Toulon, France capturing snapshots of friends and family to studying ballet and being in a rock band as a young adult near Hamburg, Germany, art has always been present in Laetitia’s life. But during the lockdowns imposed worldwide due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she fell in love with shooting analog, and devoted her time to learning multiple exposures. “I went analog because I loved holding my instant self-portraits as I snapped them,” she says. “It’s a tangible relief in a digital world going virtual. I needed to see the real me, to grapple with my emotions, contradictions, and pain. I’m an explorer. Manuals? No way! I prefer figuring out cameras myself, even if it means errors and wasted film … analog forces me to slow down, choose shots carefully, and even space months between double exposures. Watching this change is exhilarating–nothing, not even ourselves, stays the same.” Forest is a Temple emerged from a mindset of continuous change: the pandemic, isolation, meditations on time and the human connection with nature. 

“For a considerable period, I dedicated myself to daily immersions in the forest for hours on end. Witnessing my reactions to the captivating beauty of plants and animals never ceases to ignite the artistic fire within me,” Laetitia explains. “The progression of the forest from week to week is an endless well of inspiration; I can revisit the same spot and be mesmerized by the evolving transformation each being undergoes in response to weather and time. The contrasting reactions of two individuals to a single situation, too, intrigue me, urging me to emphasize this diversity through my imagery.”