Interview L'Officiel St Barth

‍

Your new exhibition is called DEEP and focuses on the oceans. Tell us about this photographic work?

For some time now I've been a regular visitor to Saint Barth, which has enabled me to get back into scuba diving, which I often do when I'm traveling, because I love it so much. The time I have here allows me to stay connected with photography as a personal artistic expression. Connecting with nature, travel, water and expressing what's deep inside myself has always been part of my creative process.

Here, each dive, each one more beautiful than the next, allowed me to create. The encounter with a lionfish, a turtle, fauna and flora in general, coral landscapes or underwater sand deserts... Moments suspended in the water, immortalized, that suddenly give rise to the DEEP series.

I began photographing on my first dive with 4 disposable silver underwater cameras. After developing and scanning the first films, some very beautiful images appeared, notably that of the lionfish. I decided that this was the right time to set up my 4th exhibition. SUMMUM architecture, which also exhibits artists in their gallery, invited me to exhibit. So I continued my photographic work on a second trip.

‍

You say you like parallel universes. Tell us about the underwater world and this world.

Exploring a parallel world is like exploring the infinite. I like the way Blaise Pascal put it: "Let man contemplate the whole of nature in its high and full majesty, let him distance his sight from the lowly objects that surround him". It's like going beyond the small being we are to discover something much greater. There's a

a dimension of inner enrichment, but also, I believe, as an artist, a necessary dimension of sharing, because otherwise what we are or create has no meaning. Exploring the seabed or climbing a volcano allows us to reposition ourselves and reconsider our being and our place in the universe, in infinity. It's a metaphysical approach to the consideration of being and our environment. Water is our lifeblood. How do we care for this vital element today?

‍

How did you come up with the 'Under Water' project?

I like simplicity and rawness, and these photos were taken with a KODAK disposable waterproof silver camera. The film and the print show a lot of grain, which manifests the hypersensitivity of the film, which even with the little light received reveals all the more the beauty of the depths. Also, the advantage of this process is that you can fully enjoy the moment, as there is no return of the captured image to the camera. Until the film is developed and scanned, you have no idea what to expect. And when you receive the scans, it's double or nothing. And there are a lot of botched images, but there are also a few that turn out to be exceptional. Post-production and editing are now an integral part of my job. You need to know the entire chain of image production to be able to bring them to life. Art direction, photography and post-production.

‍

You work a lot with still-life photography. Did you take the same approach when working with water?

I work mainly as a fashion photographer in Paris and Berlin, with houses such as Chanel, Alexandra Golovanoff, Resea, Yves Salomon, Olympia le Tan, Dorothee Schumacher...

I love fashion because it's given me the opportunity to meet so many wonderful people, and the infinite creativity of this environment, which is part of a framework that changes non-stop and quickly, is a perfect match for my creative process. I photograph clothes worn on mannequins as well as still lifes, and I love both, enhancing both the brand and the garment with an authentic photographic identity.

My approach at the bottom of the water is the same, because what interests me is authenticity, and I stay close to the material, the natural beauty that is offered to me at the moment I perceive it and at the moment I decide to photograph it to share it.

‍

Before becoming a photographer, you were a model. What did your modeling experience bring to your work as a photographer?

I think it made it easier for me to integrate into the fashion world as a photographer, with a global understanding of how images are created in this environment.

‍

Where do you find inspiration?

Staying connected to yourself.

Inspiration has a lot to do with my sensibility and the moment, but it's also about taking action. Having an idea, feeling it, trying it out, seeing if it works, starting the creative process, taking photos, looking at it, editing, taking photos again, being in the action and bringing a project to fruition. That's what inspires me most.

Sometimes I see images that I had the idea of making before I saw them, and then I say to myself I should have made them when I had the idea. Once it's seen elsewhere, I'm no longer interested.

Creation is infinite. And it's there, too, deep inside me - you just have to hear it and take action, give yourself the means to complete a project and share it.

‍

You exhibit in St Barth at Summum gallery, which is both a contemporary art gallery and an architecture firm. Do you see a link between photography and architecture?

When I was a child, I wanted to be an architect, but I also wanted to speak with images. I'm surrounded by friends who are architects. I think it's a question of perception of being or objects in space that brings these two arts together. I also see my photos as clothes for space.

And I love, in particular, this approach by Charlotte Perriand, for whom it was impossible to design a space with soul without incorporating works of art by her artist friends.

‍

How did you discover the island of St Barth?

I discovered the island of Saint Barth following my love for the man I'm with today.

‍

What are your future projects?

I'd like to continue with the DEEP series, to continue photographing underwater so as to be able to organize a 2nd exhibition with new dives and new images in Paris and why not elsewhere afterwards.

‍