If you’ve ever camped in France, you’ll know the feeling. The half-open caravan doors. The smell of pasta bubbling on portable stoves. The soft hum of nearby conversations. And the random greetings from your fellow campers. Camping is intimate and slightly weird at times, yet wonderfully human. And in Camping Flash, French photographer François Prost captures all of it, exactly as it is.
Since 2022, Prost has been travelling across France’s delightful campsites, camera in hand, creating a vivid series of flash-lit portraits of campers, alongside quietly telling details and scenes that reveal a culture many know instinctively, but few have ever really stopped to observe. The result is a body of work that is both a deeply personal document of his adventures.
France, after all, is the champion of camping. Mainland France alone accounts for nearly one-third of all camping pitches in Europe, highlighting how deeply rooted this holiday tradition is in national life. While facilities may have evolved (in most places) and comfort levels have risen, the spirit of camping hasn’t changed much at all.
Behind caravan doors and motorhomes, Prost finds a way of life that is “at once ordinary and fascinating”. People live in T-shirts or swimsuits, sleep metres from their neighbours, cook meals facing one another, and bump into strangers each evening at the communal washrooms, toothbrush in hand. It’s close. Communal. And it’s one of the last places where a simple but intense form of sociability still exists.
For Prost, this world is also deeply familiar. “I used to go camping as a kid with my parents during the holidays, then later with my friends as a teenager, and now I sometimes go with my kids as a parent. I don’t spend all my holidays camping, but I like to spend a few nights under a tent every year. I enjoy the simplicity of it — sleeping in a tent, cooking basic meals like spaghetti with sardines and tomato sauce from time to time.”
That lived experience shows. His photographs don’t poke fun or romanticise. Instead, they observe with warmth and honesty, finding humour in the everyday moments that campers themselves barely notice anymore. And there’s plenty of humour to be found. “Camping is full of funny moments… almost every day you could tell a funny story. But it’s often more about people’s attitudes – the way they talk to you, or the strange situations that come from living so close to strangers.”
It’s that closeness that defines campsite life. The rituals are universal, and often baffling to outsiders. “Probably brushing your teeth in flip-flops in the communal bathrooms next to someone you’ve never met. Or meeting people – often older couples – walking around in their bathrobes on the way to the showers in the morning. People wake up in their caravans and go straight to the shared facilities in their ‘robe de chambre’.”
Over time, Prost began collecting not just images, but stories. Campsites, he found, are full of them.
“That’s what makes camping so interesting: the diversity of people. Most of the time, people are on vacation, so they’re relaxed and open to conversation.”
One apéro led to another. “I remember two couples of bikers I met while they were having an apéro. They were a bit sceptical at first when I asked to photograph them, but they ended up being really friendly. They told me about their lives, their jobs, and their travels — and I even had to insist on leaving because I needed to keep shooting.”
Another encounter unfolded into something unexpected. “I also remember an Italian divorced father travelling with his two daughters. He began talking about his life, and next to him were a couple of painters—nomadic workers. The woman was a painter who worked in the south of France, then drove back to England to sell her paintings through a gallery. During our conversation, she told me she was one of the main painters on the animated film Loving Vincent – the one about Van Gogh’s paintings that was nominated for an Oscar in 2018. Her name was Sarah Wimperis.”
Not every story is light, though. “Then there was a lonely man, divorced, living in a caravan for work — he was an engineer on a road construction site. He talked about feeling lonely, far from his kids… You really meet all kinds of people, with very different lives and stories.”
And sometimes, camping delivers pure theatre. “Recently, while taking photos, I met a big fan of Coluche, the famous French comedian from the eighties. He spent the entire photo session doing Coluche impressions and even asked the campsite management if he could put on a little show for everyone. But it was off-season, and the camping wasn’t very full, so they refused his proposal.”
All of this now comes together in Camping Flash, a beautifully crafted book featuring 150 images across 174 pages, which is coming to life thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign. Produced under Prost’s own imprint, Flashlight Edition, the hardcover publication will feature a leatherette binding and hot-foil stamping, with an initial print run of 1,000 copies. Distribution will be handled by Interart in France and Antenne Book worldwide.
If you love the strange yet wonderful culture of camping, Prost’s book and series offer a warm reminder of slower holidays, shared spaces, and those fleeting connections with strangers who, for a few days or weeks, become part of your life. As many of us look forward to lighter nights, it’s France in summer… up close and unfiltered… And guaranteed to raise a smile.
