I’m A Photographer And Work In The French Merchant Navy

Hi! My name’s Jeff, I’m 23, I’m a photographer and also (Okay, mainly) a sailor in the French Merchant Navy.

I come from a strong maritime family, my Father has been in the french navy for 20 years, and met my mother on the Tall Ship “Belem”. My grandfather was a fishermen, my uncle worked on submarines, my other grandfather spent most of his life at sea, aaaaaand my godfather is now a commander in the French Navy. Yup, strong background.

The reason why I choose this job is because I can’t see myself behind a desk, or at a shop… And you know, the ocean has been a part of my life since I was a child so… I couldn’t really see myself doing anything else. After 5 years of volunteering for a eco-warrior organisation at sea, I decided to pass the exams required to join the merchant navy, and that was it! Since then I’ve worked on tall ships, ferries, an Arctic expedition vessel, research vessels…

Despite the super cool parts of the job, it’s a highly dangerous work. We spent months at sea without seeing our loved ones, having a sentimental life is highly complicated as well. But I would stop doing this for nothing.

After a few years I decided to buy a camera, and to document what I saw while being far from everything. Just to be clear, I’m NOT a professionnal photographer. I bought a camera, just pushed all the buttons until I managed to understand their role, and that was it! And I did my first exhibition a few weeks ago during one of the biggest maritime festival in the world!

So here are a few shots I took, feel free to visit my Flickr!

More info: flickr.com