Born in the rural center of France, it was in 2017, in Asia, that Bastien Soleil found his element: water. His journey into adulthood is both a quest for self-discovery and an irrepressible need for freedom and happiness. And it will be so much more. After embarking on adventures worthy of a novel by Dumas or Defoe, Bastien discovers freediving and begins to teach it. A creator, a creative spirit, and a resourceful man without compromise. Bastien brings the earthly world he inhabits underwater, and his initial photographic practice quickly evolves into an artistic one. With natural lighting, black and white, complex, and highly symbolic compositions. Bastien Soleil’s work reveals the natural beauty of his subjects through his keen eye, capturing both form and depth. Bastien opens our eyes to a very real universe, accessible to us yet often overlooked. He unveils sensuality, brutality, poetry, reality, shadow and light. His work mirrors his life: an invitation to travel. An inner, symbolic, and spiritual journey. He captivates our minds to better speak to our souls—light, relevant, free, serene, powerful, close to us, so very close… “In the age of artificial intelligence, the act of artistic creation finds itself mistreated. The form becomes more important than the substance, the destination more important than the path. In a modern act of resistance, I decided from my very first creations in 2020 to work in the most natural conditions possible. The compositions, the lights, the model(s) as well as myself, are without nets, without oxygen tanks and without special effects. The only things I allow myself to work on are the colors and contrasts when editing the photography. This, like a painter who decides to add light or darkness to give more energy to a muscle, a fabric or an element of the foreground or the background. What you see, looking at my work, corresponds to what my eyes saw at the time of the trigger. No more no less. You are thus immersed witnesses of a physical and artistic performance. But do not let yourself be blinded by the difficulty of the performance, live my works simply as an invitation to the most beautiful dive that a man can undertake: The one inside himself.” Bastien Soleil