Sebastien Zanella: ‘My idea is to capture the truth’

… poetry and truth My idea is to capture the truth. I don't care about the result. I care about writing poetry with my life. My idea is to find the right person at the right place and let them happen. When Pacha saw the video, she told me, ‘I love it. You captured a moment of my soul’ and I said, ‘I didn't do anything, I just pushed the button’. All my work is to do that, to be at the right place with the right person … but it's not safe. It's not what I'm looking for. I'm looking for truth. If you go to Amazonia, everything is between death and birth, and it’s about accepting that. 

… the limits of being human When you are in Galapagos, you're back in your natural habitat. There are many more animals than humans and the animals aren’t scared. I was so surprised to be in the water touching fish. Everywhere in the world you go, you’re a predator and there, they don't care. The sharks, the sea lions, they swim around you … I started feeling that maybe they are more intelligent than us. There is something more than the human perspective and you feel it there, that makes you humble. All my work is based on that. The human brain doesn't help us to understand, it's just a filter for information, but there’s much more we cannot analyse.

… being an artist I think the work of an artist today should be to bring back magic, to bring back mystery. That's why I don't inform myself. I try to be as pure as I can. I train my eyes and I train my brain. It’s what Picasso called the ‘supplement of soul’. When I can feel something that I didn't feel elsewhere, I push the button. Afterwards, I analyse the picture. If you analyse before, you try to colonise, to capture something. I don't take the picture; the picture is given to me. I didn't direct Pacha. I didn't direct Coral. I didn't direct the sea lions, I just let things happen. It's more difficult, of course, I need more time. I cannot do a full video in one day and I have my camera with me all the time because it can happen at any time. I feel that Pacha and Coral are the same. When you’re surfing for yourself, you’re in the water and you feel the energy of the ocean. That energy dictates which movements you can do; if the waves are close, you’re going to be like the dolphin and move yourself.

… being in the water I’ve swum with many different creatures, and I’m always scared. It’s your animal instinct. I carry my equipment; I'm concentrating all the time. Every time we went in the water, there would be three to four sea lions, turtles everywhere. I didn't know if they were going to hurt me. You have sharks. You have everything. I was shooting and when the wave passed I was looking around because when you swim with sea lions, sharks attack. 

… feeling alive I did a documentary with Dave Rastovich, a pro surfer from Australia, and he told me, every time you go into these conditions, you feel so alive because you’re back in the food chain. And it's addictive because you are in the place you should be. We forget living in the city, but when you go back into this (eco)system, you don't think about anything else. You focus. I'll never tell someone, ‘Yeah, I shot that wave, and it was fabulous’, because it's much more about discovering yourself. Happiness is a human construction. This is much more powerful. Living on the edge, like the animals. Every day, they can die. This is why people do crazy stuff like free solo climbing, surfing the Big Wave. When you start playing with your life, nothing else matters. You touch your animal instinct. 

… kit he can’t do without Just my camera. Even when I go to the supermarket I take my camera because it helps me to see. If I go without my camera, I don't see anything. Even if I just touch my camera, I enter another world. When I walk on the street I see all the detail on people’s clothing, the shadow of things, I enter another dimension […] That’s why I say I don't care about the result. I care much more about being present and seeing things and caring, and if I don't have my camera, I feel I care less about people. I care less about flowers. I will never look at the flowers if I don't have my camera, I will never look at the ocean in the same way … I try to have my camera with me all the time.