Can you imagine the day human get to see and explore Mars? Will they finally break the internet? Photographer, Julien Mauve gives us an idea about human conquering Mars. (And possibly taking lots of selfies.)

Greetings From Mars is about a couple experiencing Mars as tourists and sharing their experience. They include themselves in front of those landscapes and affirm their presence, but the funny thing is that we don't see their faces. It could be anyone in those suits and, in fact, it goes against the original purpose of taking a selfie. It was also a way to illustrate this endless pursuit of self-definition we seek with pictures.
-Julien Mauve

Part of my process to create a photography project is similar to movies. I spend a lot of time working on the idea, reading books, searching for any information I can find. Then I think about the characters, start the scouting, sometimes make some (awful) sketches to materialize what I have in mind. And finally, a lot of time on the post-production phase has been dedicated to color calibration.
-Julien Mauve

I've been fascinated with Mars since I was a child. I can picture myself back in college making presentations about it. We hear a lot about NASA, Elon Musk and SpaceX these days. Mars One also, the company that offers people a one-way ticket to establish the first human colony on Mars (and intend to create a TV show out of it). Space exploration and colonisation is the greatest adventure of the century and the fact that we may witness it in our lifetime (just as our parents and grandparents did in the 60's) makes it even more exciting. The Internet nearly broke when Baumgartner jumped from the stratosphere, just imagine the day the first man will put a feet on Mars!

In the meantime, Earth has become really small. We are only 12 hours and 800$ away from the other side of the world. Those easy travelling conditions have made tourism become a lucrative activity (not only for the best unfortunately). People can visit and enjoy places we would have never imagined only 50 years ago. It took less than 500 years for the Wild West to go from an amazing discovery to an epic touristic destination. Once transportation issues will be solved and if we don't encounter any massive disaster, space-tourism for mid class people is something we can imagine happening in less than 100 years.

On top of that, smartphones and social networks have emerged, allowing us to share our lives with everyone else in real time, to write our own story. We've literally developed a new language to communicate emotions through pictures and that really fascinates me.

These are all the ideas I've tried to mix into this project.
-Julien Mauve

Xavier Dolan said it better than me: Everything is possible to those who dream, dare, work and never give up.
-Julien Mauve

See more pictures of Greetings From Mars.

ABOUT JULIEN MAUVE

Julien Mauve have always loved printed pictures. His fascination started with their family photo albums when he was young. He would spend hours looking at them, fascinated by their power over him. His dad offered Julien his first analogical camera at the age of 10 and his first reflex at 25. He found himself really interested in staged photography and started his first project 4 years ago. Then, things went pretty fast, he has been rewarded several prices including the prestigious SFR Jeunes Talents in 2013, shortlisted for the Leica Oscar Barnak Award in 2015 and has exhibited his work in several galleries and fairs around Europe including Paris, Copenhagen and London. See more of Julien's photographs at Behance or his website.