Pauline Mathiot | Photographer & Visual Creative

From France

I’m the photographer on different destinations and the year-round visual creative. My role is to maintain an authentic visual style and capture the magical vibes of the experience, while ensuring every woman feels unique and seen. Our world is all about pastel colors and positive energy, and my job is to make sure that spirit shines through in our communications.

Ever since I can remember, I’ve had a deep connection to ocean life, centered around surfing and latin influences. I completed my Art Direction Master’s Degree in France and then embarked on a journey through Latin America. During this adventure, I’ve explored various art forms until I truly found myself into photography. It became my primary means of expressing my visions, emotions, and dreams. My work draws inspiration from my love for the ocean and the warm, poetic embrace of the sun. I find my creative muse in the core of human nature, mostly in the feminine energy. For the past decade, I’ve split most of my time between France and El Salvador, both of which I call home. I specialized in creative portrait photography, commercial and brand identity.

As a photographer, my most significant challenge lies in making every woman feel truly seen, heard, and beautiful. The Salty Souls Experience is a profound retreat that stirs up a multitude of emotions in motion. It can be quite a task to comprehend these emotions and capture them in their purest essence.

After years of training and exploration, I genuinely believe that I can make anyone look like a model.

My favorite place is wherever I can feel the sun warming my skin, my hair salty from the sea, and my body tired from surfing. It’s in these moments that I become the happiest, most authentic version of myself. While I haven’t travelled enough yet to name my perfect place, let me describe the one in my head: it is a small coastal village with fishing boats docked. In the distance, there’s a solitary wave in the middle of the ocean – turquoise, translucent, and gently breaking. I can dance on my surfboard. The golden sand is surrounded by wooden houses with old books and fresh fruits. The sound of music from a vinyl record fills the air, and my camera rests beside me.

Knowing that our entire life can really change in a fingers snap if we want to. We gotta love ourselves enough to know we deserve more, be brave enough to demand more, and be disciplined enough to actually work for more. I truly believe the world is in our hands, there is infinite options and opportunities to reach whatever dream, and this idea fills me up with joy.

Traveling to Ethiopia alone at the age of 18 may not be the craziest thing, but it instilled in me the freedom and courage to always follow my true desires and needs.