Biography
Natan Kerbellec (born in 1987 in Brittany) is a self-taught photographer based in Rennes. His passion for imagery began in childhood, leafing through family photo albums and capturing moments of life with the family VHS camera. Always carrying a camera—whether film or digital—Natan explores the world with curiosity. His travels across the globe shape his vision, leading him to capture inhabited landscapes imbued with solitude and contemplation. He favors a minimalist approach, where symmetry and refined composition give way to dreamlike atmospheres. Influenced by the cinema of Tarkovsky and Kurosawa, the philosophy of Jung, and the stories of Jack London, his work reflects an inner quest—without explicit intention, yet driven by a desire to share fleeting moments of grace.
Artistic approach
I photograph without any conceptual intention.
What drives me to press the shutter is a feeling of pure, silent joy—often sparked by a place or a fleeting encounter. My images emerge as I travel and drift, when I come across a landscape, an atmosphere, or a detail that resonates with my inner world. It is simply the desire to share this intimate joy, this suspended moment. My process is born from the wish to share a feeling outside of time.
My aesthetic is pared-down, close to minimalism. I strive for sober compositions, where frontality, bold lines, and empty space invite a sense of dreaming. I love color when it reveals the emotion I experienced, but I also turn to black and white when the moment calls for it.
I work with a full-frame compact camera (Sigma fp) and fixed focal lenses (135mm, 35mm, 15mm), which allow me to compose mentally even before framing—always seeking the most accurate distance. Above all, I aim to remain faithful to what I saw and felt, both in the moment and during post-processing.
I choose to print my photographs on satin-textured fine art paper (Hahnemühle Photo Rag Satin – 310g/m²). The satin finish reminds me of the family prints my mother carefully selected—a sensitive and emotional detail that has stayed with me. As for the paper's texture, it’s essential in my eyes: it allows the image to be perceived almost tactilely, as if one could touch it with their gaze. I love that photography can also exist as an object with a tangible, embodied presence.
In the PRESENCE series, a guiding thread revealed itself naturally. On the road, I’m often drawn to a striking element in the landscape—a shape, a structure, a detail—that exudes a kind of silent presence. These still forms seem to wait, as if withdrawn from the world, inviting me to pause. They echo something I feel within, without needing explanation. In their stillness lies a quiet intensity, almost invisible, that touches me deeply.
My influences are many: the photography of Koudelka and Depardon, the cinema of Tarkovsky, Kurosawa, and Kubrick, surrealist painting, and the writings of Jung and Jack London. All of them nurtured my taste for wandering, silence, dreamlike imagery, and depth.
The gaze comes from the outside. I keep my images open—available—so that anyone may project their own reading onto them. But I hope, without insisting, that they awaken something buried: an inner intuition, an existential resonance. If my photographs can guide—even imperceptibly—toward contemplation of the self or of the world, then they will have found their place.