Julien Grondin
France
Self-taught, Julien Grondin — a.k.a. Beboy photographies [Beboy Photographs] — has been a photographer for more than ten years. He began his career as a graphic designer and developed a special attraction to color work. He acquired a digital SLR and started by practicing different kinds of photography — but soon started focusing on shooting cityscapes.
While living in Paris, the photographer criss-crossed the capital, whose great monuments became his first source of inspiration: “My idea was to revisit the classics, to give a different interpretation to places that have already been heavily photographed, by looking for a new angle or a unique light.” Definitively fascinated by cities, he has decided to pursue his photographic adventure in the great cities of the world, setting out to discover the streets of New York, Los Angeles, London, Singapore, Shanghai, Bangkok, Hong Kong, etc.
Julien Grondin’s compositions are characterized by high dynamics. Favoring long exposure times, bold framing, and twilight, the photographer literally sets the stage for the city, placing it at the center of a living whole. Light, whether natural or artificial, is omnipresent in his work, giving his photographs a dominant and sometimes spectacular “pop.” “Even more than the photos themselves, it is the cities and their immensity that attract me. Taking the time to feel the place where I am is very important to me, which is why my best photos are usually taken at the end of my first week there, and not before.”
To live his passion, Julien Grondin has decided to devote his life to travel. He began this new nomadic adventure at the beginning of April 2013, traveling the world with his girlfriend, looking for ever more spectacular images.
Julien Grondin and DxO Labs solutions
Julien Grondin accords great importance to the processing of his photos. His workflow relies mainly on DxO ViewPoint, whose simple and powerful perspective correction tools he especially appreciates. “I shoot mainly with wide-angle lenses, between 14 and 20 mm, and DxO ViewPoint was a leap forward for me when processing, because now I can photograph at wide angles without any major constraints. The distortions are particularly well-corrected in just a few clicks.” Often photographing against the light, he also appreciates DxO Optics Pro for its exclusive DxO Smart Lighting feature, which intelligently brings out the details in different ranges of light, whether under- or overexposed.
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