French photographer Catherine Aupetit Earns Best Photo of the Season for “Blue Fairy”

French photographer Catherine Aupetit has been awarded both the Platinum Award and the prestigious title of Best Photo of the Season in the Nature & Experimental Photography category at the World Grand Prix Photography Awards 2025 Autumn Season for her poetic work Blue Fairy.

The jury described the piece as “a luminous and dreamlike vision that captures the invisible rhythm of life — transforming motion into art and observation into emotion.”

In Blue Fairy, Aupetit explores the imperceptible — the hidden choreography of a butterfly’s wings in flight. Through the use of long exposure, movement becomes light, and the fleeting moment transforms into an ethereal calligraphy suspended in air. The photograph reflects her ability to blend sensitivity, patience, and technical mastery to evoke both mystery and wonder in the natural world.

Her work embodies a contemplative approach to photography — one that treats light as language, time as texture, and chance as creative companion.

Q: What inspired you to take this award-winning photo? Is there a story behind the piece you’d like to share?

Catherine: In this photograph, I wanted to reveal what the eye cannot see: the secret motion of a butterfly’s wings. Through a long exposure, its flight becomes a luminous trace, almost calligraphic, inscribing the memory of a moment into the air. This fragile flutter, usually invisible, turns into an ephemeral choreography, a writing of light where life, dream, and the passage of time meet.

Q: Were there any challenges during the process of creating this series or image? How did you navigate them?

Catherine: The main challenge was patience: waiting for the butterflies, unpredictable and whimsical, who alone decided the moment and the path. Each shot was a gamble, often lost — seventy failed images for a single successful one. But I chose to make that part of the process, to embrace chance as a creative partner. The rarity of the final image makes it all the more precious to me.

Q: How do you approach the balance between technical skill and emotional/artistic expression in your photography?

Catherine: For me, artistic expression always comes before technique. Technical skill is only a tool — a language serving an emotion, a vision. It should fade away to let the poetry of the image emerge. A successful photograph is not the perfect one, but the one that makes you feel something genuine.

Q: What message or feeling do you hope your photography conveys to viewers?

Catherine: I hope this photograph awakens both dream and curiosity, reminding us how worthy of admiration the world around us truly is. Behind every movement, every glimmer of light, lies a trace of mystery and beauty. If my image encourages others to see nature with fresh, attentive, and wonder-filled eyes, then it will have fulfilled its purpose.

Q: In your view, what role does photography play in today’s world?

Catherine: Today, social media is overflowing with images to the point where we no longer truly look at them. Photography, drowned in this constant flow, is slowly losing its role as a witness to reality. With the rise of artificial intelligence, doubt has entered the frame: is what we see still real?Through my work, I wish to restore photography’s original meaning, as an art that is both poetic and truthful. I want my images to make people pause, reflect, and open their eyes to reality — to remind them that beauty still exists, here and now.

Social Media: https://www.instagram.com/csaphotographie

Website: https://catherineaupetit.com/