If you're anything like me and obsessed with travel and in particular travel photography you're going to fall in love with these amazing images from Bhutan by SYLVAIN BOUZAT. With beautiful vibrant colour and clarity he really brings his subjects to life and you get an incredible feel of the country through his eyes. It truly makes me want to book a trip there! Enjoy the images after hearing more about Sylvain's experience. I know for me, this is truly inspiring!
"I went in Bhutan in 2015 and I felt in love with this amazing country. A few years later, I began to shoot film photo with medium format. And I could think of only one thing: going back in Bhutan and capturing it again with film because it means so much to me. During the second trip, my goal was to shoot a lot of portraits of people – and begin my long dreamt of series 'Faces & Hands' (the face reflects who you are and the hands, what you do) and everyday life candid shots.
Bhutan is a very small isolated country, located somewhere in Asia but of which we do not know much. I learnt that it is a country wedged between China and India that has never been colonised, and remains protected by the ramparts of the Himalayas to the north and south by the jungle. It is also the only kingdom in the world where Buddhism is a state religion, where the carbon footprint is negative, where agriculture is 95% organic and nature is extremely preserved (it represents 72% of the kingdom to wild state, it is also forbidden to kill animals).
This country is also the inventor of the BNB (Gross National Happiness based on 11 criteria: employment, income, housing, social links, education, environment, work-life balance, governance, health, satisfaction and security). Who wishes to take against the usual index of GDP. The latter measures and values only the production of wealth. The NBB was adopted by the UN in 2011.
A kingdom preserved from time and globalisation. To me, Bhutan is truly a unique country! Thanks to its isolation, this country has preserved its ancestral customs (traditional clothing, colourful religious rites, a strong relationship to nature) whilst remaining removed from Western influences and globalisation that tends to standardise our planet. It is a real pleasure to travel through the immense fortresses (Dzongs) maintained to perfection and in which Bhutanese people are smiling in their traditional clothes.
Everything is calm and time goes by slowly, in harmony with the Himalayan mountainous surroundings and the Buddhist traditions that permeate the culture and daily life of serenity. I took a big breath of oxygen in contact with this gentle people and outside of time and fashion effects. I invite you to take a break… breathe and travel with me…"
