Changing my Life every 10 Years

Racer, journalist, photographer, film maker, teacher, every 10 years I am adding new skills to my arsenal. Auto portrait shot in Taiwan in 1994 while discovering the island on my own.

It is quit funny, as important decisions are changing my life every 10 years. Here are some of my key steps in 1985, 1995, 2005 and 2015.
By Franc Peret

– In 1985, I decided to work all year to prepare a car and motorcycle race I wanted to participate in: Atlas Rally in Morocco.
It costs me about 6 months salary in investment, and I was in search of sponsors.
To seduce potential partner, I got the idea to ask to different magazine if they would accept to publish an article from my experience, being a complete rookie in such races, one of the youngest participant.
Yannick Picard, who was a chief editor of Moto Magazine, a cooperative type of publication (which means open minded and ready to take risk) was the only one to accept to give me a chance.
And I will never thank him enough for this, as without him, I would never had a chance to find my way.

I worked a complete year to participate to this 1986 Atlas Rally: With 600 kms average on tough rocky tracks everyday, racing on the Beach was like been on a highway

Yannick filled up my hand with a load of Fuji roll of slide film, wishing me good luck.
From there, my only aim was to finish the race, whatever happen, as I needed material (pix and stories to tell) to get published.
Here are my pictures from my participation to Atlas Rally in Morocco (Photos from Friends and Maindru).

At age 23, I was the second youngest participant of this international car and motorcycle rally

Rocks, dust and palm trees, and magic names: Missour, Erfoud, Tagounit, Agadir…

In the bag around my hip, I was carrying a shockproof compact film camera (offered by another great guy, a photographer) to record my experience of the week long (5600Km) off road race, I absolutely needed to finish.

And I made it, despite several crashes and many problems, I was able to write and illustrate a 6 pages story which will become my first article published in a professional magazine.
Thanks to this race I became a photojournalist shortly after, starting with Moto Magazine as Yannick appreciated my very first article.
He needed someone able to write article about off-road racing and I was at the right place at the right time for this.
And it launches my career of photo journalist for good, learning my craft and improving both my writing and my pictures step by step for the 10 years to come.

My very first report as a journalist opens up a new career opportunity. Thanks to Yannick from Moto Magazine

– In 1995 I quit France to set up in Taiwan and this was the start of my life in Asia and a career in Film making and Lifestyle Photography, which last until now.

One of my first shot working on an historical film in Taiwan (scan of a paper picture)

One of my picture which serve to promote the movie “Red Kaki” released in 1996. I worked 4 month on this film and learned a lot from it.

I started there as a still photographer for movie, but quickly learned the film-making craft being an Assistant director and finally a cameraman

One of the most interesting scene from the film Summers which allowed me to get some interesting view to emphasize the action and the cartoonish character of the film

I was hired by Leon Dai, a Taiwanese director to shoot his first feature film: “Summers”

Lots of shots were done in natural light which was very challenging.

Another interesting set up in the street of Taipei for an action scene on the shooting of Summers.

Taipei 2000: Shooting my first film as cameraman and Director of Photography for Dai Li Ren (Leon Dai) in 2000. My assistant is not very concentrate.

– In 2005, I decided to set up in China and I added a new activity to my arsenal by becoming a photography and film making teacher…

2005 to 2015, 10 years of teaching photography in Shanghai

What will happen in 2015? Another big change for sure and I already know the answer as you can see with this picture taken recently.

My 2 months old daughter raising her head for the first time.

Franc Peret is a professional Photographer teaching Essential Photography Classes, Advanced Photography Workshop and Film Making Classes in Shanghai