French documentary photographer Delphine Blast has established herself as one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary French documentary photography. Her work stands at the crossroads of social and artistic expression, examining identities, traditions, and contemporary issues affecting women, communities, and minorities, with particular focus on Latin America, a region she has been exploring for many years.

Blast's images go beyond mere testimony—they tell stories, question assumptions, and provoke thought. Each series creates a visual narrative where the intimate meets the collective, where emotion dialogues with history. The themes she addresses—memory, resilience, cultural transmission, social struggles, and the role of women in society—unfold with an intensity that transforms documentary photography into a deeply sensory experience. Her photographs speak as much about the human condition as about the singular existences they illuminate, giving form to invisible or ignored realities.

Collaborating with prestigious institutions and exhibiting internationally, Blast has imposed a vision that is both rigorous and profoundly empathetic. She gives voice and visibility to those rarely heard, while avoiding voyeurism and oversimplification. Each image captures silences, gestures, and emotions, revealing the dignity and complexity of her subjects. Through her work, Blast redefines the photographer's role from simple observer to engaged participant, capable of combining ethical demands, formal precision, and poetic power.

Currently, until November 2, Blast is participating in the 13th photography season at the Royal Abbey of Epau, near Le Mans (Yvré-l'Évêque). In a recent interview, she shared insights into her artistic journey and philosophy. When asked about her first photographic breakthrough, Blast recalled her initial trip to Bolivia in 2004 as a defining moment.

Regarding influences, she cites Graciela Iturbide as her inspiration, praising the Mexican photographer's ability to reveal intimacy with poetry and respect while weaving deep connections with the cultures and people she photographs. Rather than a specific image she wishes she had created, Blast describes wanting to capture an atmosphere—a photograph capable of condensing both human fragility and strength, an image that tells a story beyond what is visible.

The photograph that moved her most comes from Christophe Agou's series "Face au silence" (Facing Silence), showing a farmer sitting in her modest kitchen with her German Shepherd licking her injured foot. This image captures the strength, resilience, and tenacity of farmers while revealing their profound connection to land and animals. Conversely, images that anger her include recent photographs of famine in Gaza, particularly one showing a mother holding her young daughter in a makeshift hospital.

A key image in her personal pantheon comes from Mary Ellen Mark's "Streetwise" series. The tenderness and harshness of Mark's portraits of street children continue to move her, reminding her how photography can serve as a tool of memory and humanity. Regarding childhood photographic memories, Blast admits having very few. However, she identifies an obsessive image: a photograph by Gulnara Samoilova from her series "Lost Family (My mother, grandma and imaginable grandmother)." This image moves her deeply, not only for its powerful intervention and aesthetics but for what it represents—memory, absence, and intergenerational connections.

When discussing images that changed the world, Blast points to the photograph of young Alan Kurdi, the Syrian child found lifeless on a beach in 2015, which embodies the migration drama and human suffering, especially of children. The image that changed her own world was Rembrandt's "Portrait of an Old Man in Red," which she encountered as a child. The light falling on the subject's face, revealing every wrinkle and emotion while plunging the rest into shadow, profoundly marked her understanding that light could tell stories and that images could capture far more than immediately visible.

Without budget limitations, Blast would acquire "Cuzco Woman Looking Down" (1948), a photograph by Irving Penn from his Peru studios series. She identifies humility as the essential quality for good photographers, while the secret of perfect images lies in good light and composition, but especially in telling a story through the image and the emotion it provokes—being fully present at the right moment with proper vision and listening.

Blast expresses regret at not being able to photograph Nelson Mandela and would choose to be photographed by Graciela Iturbide. She recommends "Women Street Photographers" as an essential photography book. Having no childhood camera, she discovered photography later and now uses several cameras, including a Sony Alpha 7 IV with fixed focal lengths.

Travel serves as her preferred "drug," and departure provides her best means of disconnection. Her relationship with images is therapeutic—photographing allows her to understand and explore the world while giving meaning to her feelings. She identifies empathy as her greatest quality, and her latest "folly" involved refusing a major photo project to recharge herself on the other side of the world.

For a new banknote image, she would imagine a child playing—a simple but universal moment symbolizing freedom, joy, and hope. She would avoid covering conflicts and war zones, while her greatest professional extravagance involved staging a project as a true performance, mixing photography, sound, and light.

Blast believes photography has unique power to crystallize moments, making them historical and universal. Images like Tiananmen's "Tank Man," the Berlin Wall's fall, or Arab Spring demonstrations have transcended their contexts to become symbols of resistance, freedom, and transformation, influencing collective consciousness and redefining our understanding of history and human rights struggles.

Regarding social media's influence on photography creation and perception, Blast feels ambivalent. While these platforms offer excellent communication means for instantly sharing stories and reaching broad audiences, they also encourage excessive image consumption and speed races where reflection and depth sometimes take second place. She recommends following Maya Goded (mayagoded) on Instagram.

A successful photograph, according to Blast, captures something real while going beyond simple representation—an image that makes people feel, tells a story, and remains in viewers' memories. What interests her most in images is what they reveal beyond appearance: emotions, gestures, silences, and invisible connections created between viewers and photographed subjects.

Blast doesn't establish clear boundaries between photography and art photography, believing documentary photography can be considered artwork and vice versa. What matters is image strength and capacity to touch, tell stories, and move people, rather than labels. She dreams of discovering Nepal while never tiring of a small fishing village on Mexico's west coast—a place of light and inspiration she keeps precious to herself.

Her greatest regret involves not starting earlier. She works in both color and black-and-white, preferring color, and uses both natural and artificial light depending on context. Among photogenic cities, she chooses Guanajuato, Mexico. If God existed, she would opt for a selfie rather than a formal portrait session.

If she could start over, Blast would do everything again without hesitation but with even more self-confidence and trust in her choices. She would take the same paths and risks while letting herself be guided more by instinct and conviction that her work has meaning. Her final word is "confidence"—confidence in oneself, in others, and in the chosen path.