Adrien Blondel was born and grew up in Normandy, France. He moved to Paris where he studied and graduated in history of cinema and cinematography.
His first feature documentary film project brought him to the US, where he came back to live in San Francisco. Adrien works as a lighting technician and a camera operator for the film industry.
He recently finished the shooting of his second feature documentary, set in a Maasai community in Kenya.
In search for more creative output than his work provides, Adrien started developing his photography practice a few years ago.
His work is highly influenced by the experience of living abroad, and deals with memory, the notion of home and a cultural view of his surroundings.
About ‘I can’t hear the sound of French’:
‘Form follows function – that has been misunderstood. Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union.’
Frank Lloyd Wright
Does the sound follow the meaning in language?
As a french living in the US, I am often told about how beautiful the french language sounds.
I can’t hear that sound. My brain immediately attaches meaning to every word, and only through an exercise of the brain can I set free from the referent and hear the word for what it is, sound.
As with a foreign language, we cannot attribute a function to a form we don’t recognize.
I’ve been searching for the sound of my surroundings, a quest to dissociate the form from the meaning.
