My name is Eric-René Penoy, I am French by origin, born in the Ardennes in Charleville-Mezieres, you certainly know this little point near Belgium which is generally the coldest point in France.
I opened my eyes to the world in November 1978 from a medical secretary mother and a college math teacher father. (God knows I've always been bad at math, by the way). After studying Law and Economic and Social Administration in Business and Administration Management, I had to return to working life to earn my own money. My very first job was to find myself behind a counter in the After Sales Service of Fnac in Reims. This experience taught me to deal with customers from different backgrounds. not always the most pleasant, but also a lot of patience. Following this experience at FNAC, I never left the world of sales and commerce.
One day, I joined the sales team during the opening of a Saturn store (still in Reims) and by dint of discussing with customers who had a passion for Photography, I too took a taste for this medium. I found a way to create there.
As a real geek, I knew all the cameras I sold in my store (about 140 references anyway). but the artistic fiber came much later. Like many photographers, I learned by myself, with tutorials on Youtube and I took my first stripes after having covered the weddings of childhood friends. Then friends of friends.
I then followed my heart in 2012 to follow my Polish girlfriend to Scotland. Not speaking very English at the time, I only had my reflex for free time, and I said to myself, and why not offer my services as a photographer? I then trained even more, like everyone else on social networks. I also did my first tests during Workshops in Scotland wherein the end everything started.
And I started to grow in the world of wedding photography exponentially. In 2014, I embarked on the adventure full-time and immediately covered a large number of weddings for the 2014-2015 season (57). I trusted myself more and more, I worked a lot, and I also had a lot of chances (I think it takes some).
Having become a Trainer, Speaker, and Mentor, I owe a lot of my reputation in the profession to my fathers who recognized me in 2017 as the only BodaF New Talent of the Year in Barcelona. I also developed my business in Europe and then internationally and is covered with Weddings all over the globe. In 2019, I was also elected among the 30 photographers of the year at the Rangefinder Rising Star Mondial. Besides, I missed the opportunity to have a free Fuji gfx 50 offered by Fuji USA since all the Rangefinder presets at the WPPI convention received a camera from the hands of your American branch. But like an idiot, I couldn't get there. haha
I really believed in myself, in my values, in my ability to be different and have a branding, a unique, sensitive, and poetic vision of the wedding day. It's not false modesty, I just think that I always had in me this desire to prove to others, to myself that I was capable of creating things with my brain, my hands, and per se my camera. The community has given me a lot and I have always found it normal to give back this trust to it, to help people progress. I teach them to tame their fears, to sell themselves to potential customers, and to communicate with them by developing real customer service from the beginning to the end of our services. Also, I teach them how to be real entrepreneurs.
With Covid, I had the full year 2020 to think and rethink my site, my communication, and my branding. It was an emotional rollercoaster you can imagine. But in the end, I feel stronger than ever to attack the coming season. I have even more hopes and great projects for this season. Weddings in Morocco, USA, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Tanzania and more.
I now live in Mexico for 5 months of the year and the rest of the peak wedding season in Europe I will be based in France with my Mexican wife. I left France 9 years ago. (7 years in Scotland, 2 years in Portugal and now in Mexico).
If I allow myself to contact you, it is above all to tell you that since my photographic debut, I have always been captivated by the rendering of medium formats, I have looked at the works of José Villa, Austin Clayton, and so many others, the rendering of the management of the blur, of the softness of these images rocked my cretivia but also was a vector of a lot of frustration. Find a camera that can give me the freedom to create my images while keeping my signature, my touch, and my marked identity. Not being able to have the ability to do 100% of the rendering that we want to have/give to our couples has been a source of pain in my work. Then following Fuji's announcement on the ability to create images on Medium Format changed everything in my way of seeing things and even anticipating my future and photographic approach.
But I always felt feverish to contact a camera brand. Still in fear of not being legitimate, I think, you certainly know the impostor syndrome that many artists or artisans have in them.
With time, experience, and growing projects, I feel ready now, I'm already an ambassador for different brands and I have a sales background and am even more of a technology enthusiast, clearly, I'm a Geek who started photography by selling cameras (Perfect combo to test a lot of things and know how to sell with passion, I really think that without passion the message will not get through at all in the same way).
I work hard to be a reference in my field. I talk all the time about my camera and the technology embedded in my devices. I'm a real, pure geek, and I think my passion lies in my communication. We don't define a photographer by his camera but by his style, his customer service, or his touch, but I must admit that going from Canon to Sony was a Game Changer for me. I really think it allowed me to deepen my investigation and development of my unique style and approach. Today I hope to be one of the French-speaking representatives of the brand because Wedding (often the poor relation of photography) attract more and more people and represent nearly 3 billion euros annually. There are more than 5,000 photographers for 250,000 weddings per year.
I would therefore like to officially offer my services as a Fuji Brand Ambassador on the Medium Format and Prints Section (I already have two fuji instax mini plus an SQ20). And I'm dying to share my experience with my colleagues from all walks of life, whether they speak French or English. I recently launched my education site which will tend to talk about photographic techniques, business, SEO, storytelling, sales, customer communication and of course equipment, all in text, sound and video, and I would like to put a Gopro on my camera this year and show the images taken on the spot during my weddings and wherever I have to go this season.
It will be a great honor and a responsibility to join this program and I feel ready to embrace this new challenge with passion.
I hope that my message will in any case catch your attention, pique your curiosity and maybe even inspire you. In any case, I would like to create, as I often say, a simple but deep connection with all the companies with which I work. And having the possibility of working with a camera that makes me dream (fuji gfx50s2).
Eric-René Penoy
