Aldo Paredes Orejuela
aka Monsieur Collodion
Ecuador
Aldo Paredes Orejuela (aka Monsieur Collodion) is an Ecuadorian photographer born in Guayaquil. At the age of 19, he moved to France to study at the Lyon School of Fine Arts, where he later specialized in photography under Philippe Durand. From 2012 to 2016, he taught photography at BLOO – École de Photographie et de l’Image Contemporaine in Lyon, while developing both a personal documentary practice and an international editorial career.
Since settling in Marseille in 2021, his practice has focused on the Mediterranean and the wet plate collodion process. Rejecting the speed and disposability of digital photography, he embraces this handcrafted 19th-century technique to create unique photographs in which chemistry, light and time become active participants in the process.
For Aldo, collodion is much more than a photographic process: it is a philosophy. Every plate is handmade, every portrait is a singular encounter, and most are created in a single exposure, with no second chance. His images exist at the crossroads of documentary photography, craftsmanship and contemporary art, restoring rarity, materiality and emotional depth to photography.
In a world overwhelmed by an endless stream of images, he believes that creating just one photograph has become an extraordinary luxury.
Instagram• SERIES •
Marseille B.eautiful and B.rutal
In Marseille, there are no Arabs, Italians, Comorians or Armenians. There are Marseillaises and Marseillais. An identity that does not erase origins, but brings them together within a shared history. As the oldest city in France, Marseille is above all a place of welcome, shaped by the Mediterranean and by those who have crossed it.
Aldo Paredes Orejuela chose to photograph this city because, since arriving in 2021, he has found a unique energy there. The sea, the cliffs, the concrete and the people seem to belong to the same material. He photographs connections before he photographs people.
The title Marseille B.eautiful and B.rutal plays on the Marseille expression “BB” to give it another meaning: Building Bridges. Building bridges has become the guiding thread of his work. Bridges between landscapes and their inhabitants, between cultures, territories and generations. Bridges between handcrafted photography and contemporary art, between memory and the present.
