French photographer and visual artist Reine Paradis has captured international attention with her latest photo series "Eclipse," earning first place in the 2025 International Photography Awards. The ambitious project showcases 15 photographs taken across various locations worldwide, representing years of meticulous planning and creative vision.
Born in 1989 and educated at the prestigious Gobelins School of Visual Communication in Paris, Paradis has been based in Los Angeles since 2012. The city of cinema, stories, fantasies, and eternal self-reinvention provides the perfect creative environment for her multidisciplinary work, which spans photography, painting, film, and sculpture.
The Eclipse series demonstrates Paradis's unique and elaborate creative process, which begins with imagining detailed scenarios. From these initial visions, she creates small paper maquettes that serve as blueprints for her final photographs. The location scouting process alone can take years as she searches worldwide for the perfect settings to bring her imagined scenes to life.
Once suitable locations are identified, Paradis takes on multiple roles as designer and creator of costumes, props, and origami-influenced sculptures that will populate each scene. Working with a partner who handles the camera work, Paradis stages herself as the central figure in each composition, adding a crucial performative element to her artistic process. By physically inhabiting these scenes, she believes she can more authentically transmit her original creative vision.
Paradis approaches even the most extreme situations without hesitation, often concealing her identity behind a distinctive blonde wig. This transformation allows her to embody alternative characters as extensions of herself, providing opportunities to experience different lives, even if only temporarily during the photographic process.
The post-production phase represents another intensive aspect of Paradis's methodology, as she personally handles all photo editing with meticulous attention to detail. Through careful manipulation of perspective and depth, she projects her imagined world onto reality, adjusting every individual tone to align with her signature minimalist color palette.
Unlike traditional photography that aims to capture existing reality, Paradis's approach inverts this concept entirely. Her resulting self-portraits serve as visual testimonies to her imagination while transporting viewers into perfectly framed glimpses of her artistic universe. The images challenge conventional notions of documentary photography by prioritizing creative vision over literal representation.
The success of the Eclipse series has generated additional projects, including an upcoming feature film titled "PARADISLAND." This documentary will follow the complete making of the Eclipse series and is scheduled for worldwide theatrical and streaming release during spring or summer 2026. More information about Paradis and her work can be found at www.reineparadis.com.
