I remember the first time I got a camera: it was a tiny little Instamatic with a flash cube. I finally had a traveling companion! I started by photographing my family, then the streets. Later, when I was in New York, I began photographing people in the street. I met photographer Martine Barrat at the Chelsea Hotel and followed her around for a while. She was photographing boxers in the Bronx or Harlem. I was young and I thought to myself then that photography could completely take over your life. I found that sexy. When I returned to Paris, I did press photography for several newspapers, mostly black and white – I was pretty good at it.
One day, someone told me: “If you’re good in black and white, you’re good in colour”. Something clicked! I dove into colour photography, and it completely changed the way I saw things. I started having real fun: album covers, movie stills, fashion photography, portraits of actors and comedians…
As soon as I had the chance to own a Phase One, an extraordinary and powerful camera, I found my favourite model, Adèle Simphal, and we worked together for four to five years. Whenever we had the opportunity, we would take off and shoot together.
It was through our partnership that my personal style was born. I managed to find a voice, something very close to me, which I can only explain through photographs. My compositions were different, with vivid colours, and I also let chance play a big role. I never really prepared shoots: everything happens in the moment itself. The model, the location, the colours, the constellations… It’s always played out in the present. But it must always provoke something that makes you slightly uncomfortable, something a bit incomprehensible, somewhat provocative, thrilling.
For the past two years, I’ve discovered artificial intelligence and I’m captivated by the new images I’ve never seen before. It’s pure thought transformed into image. It puts a lot of people off – they say it’s not art. Yet every person I know who works with AI has developed a personal style. I don’t like everything, but I adore some of it, which means that here again, you can see one’s alter ego.
Soon, I’d like to create an entire story around Bluebeard’s seven women: something slightly erotic and at the same time strange, related to desire and power. I’m currently working on this idea.
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