Portraits & People
Youna Loriot Was Used to Being Directed
Youna seems to move through life with curiosity rather than a fixed plan. Music, acting, photography, travelling — different ways of experiencing the world rather than fixed identities. She doesn't seem particularly interested in being just one thing.
She has played accordion on Breton markets, hitchhiked across Europe, worked as a model and pursued acting. There is something open and determined in that. A willingness to follow curiosity, try something new and see where it leads.
She was blessed with extraordinary beauty. She knows it, I imagine. But she doesn't seem trapped by it.
When we met, photography became another way of exploring that space. We got to know each other through our photographic exercises — trying things, looking, adjusting, sometimes getting it wrong.
She was used to being directed.
I wasn't particularly interested in directing her.
I chose the place. The rest I left to her.
And she gave me more than the obvious beauty. She was also willing to be awkward, strange, unguarded. To let herself be seen when being beautiful wasn't the point.
Perhaps that was what I found most interesting when we met: the courage to simply be present.
