Portraits Photographiques et Uniformes
5 janvier 2010
The most beautiful, and the fastest… ssssqqquuueak… That must be the sound of a racing dog running. My first dog portraits, after the horses and poneys of the EMPIRE and LUX series. But this time, the animal is the only character of the image… a dog in uniform, with a clear and defined function. Empathy is somewhere else.
10 décembre 2009
From the moment I photographed the Royal Horse guards in London to the printing of the Empire book. The book is printed and should be soon in the bookshops. I expected it earlier but the new printing with the Italian version made us wait a bit longer. Three languages, with some of the best publishers in Europe… I’m pretty happy about that. I now need to be able to focus myself on my new project. I already started and never had the chance to put any new images online. After the very elegant Empire, and the maniac Opera, I’m now workng on something more fundamental, wild… something dealing with primitivism… paganism. Wait and see.
10 juillet 2009
From both sides, there’s some influences. I may use fashion into my photographic work as fashion may use my images as a source of inspiration. With Felipe Oliveira Baptisa, we found many of these crossroads, from my Notre Dame series, my 2 Nelson images or recently, the Majorettes series. The project of a collaboration is now opened.
7 juillet 2009
26 juin 2009
Manawatu area, I stayed 12 days in a Maori college for boys. From 12 to 17 years old, these kids receive a strong maori education to become Maori leaders. They learn Haka, play rugby, pray the god in maori. Their « short school Haka » is the subject of my last research their. We’re all used to see the famous « Ka mate » Haka of the All Black (without really knowing its meaning and its controversial use my the All blacks). The Haka is not only a war dance, it’s also a ritual for every important moment of the maori life. And the « Short school » Haka of the Hato Paora school is telling about their wish to make it good: « Eke, eke hara mai te toki.Tena hui e, tena hui e » (Let us rise, let us grow, and be passionate). The « Short school Haka » series will be shown at the Museum of contemporary Art of Wien (Kunsthalle) from the 3rd of July.
25 mai 2009
I just transformed myself for a little while. This is from a studio session in Shanghai after I went to the Nang Jing Opera. Here’s my LU QIAN REN costume, the one designed last year with the same purple-black-white-yellow and silver of the guard uniform. The LU QIAN REN performance, also titled « the purple bridge », is a combination of 7 poses made in a sort of choreography. This will take place in different exhibitions during the next two years, in Tapei, Beijing and Shanghai… Read more…
2 mars 2009
Back from the carnival of Poços de Caldas… I’m still a bit somewhere in between after this. Playing with the identities sounds like a game and a sacrifice somehow. I will start to work on a text about the experience and a book project about the fantasias. I now have the material to do it.
13 janvier 2009
I started my « Portraits photographiques et uniformes » in 1998, in my hometown when a ship from the French navy stopped here for a week-end, in the port of Rouen. I went to talk with the captain and asked for the permission to do the portrait of the crew. Then, I started. My first portraits looking like what I’m still doing are from January 1999, with the first series about the synchronize ice skatters (not the « Steps » series, another one), my first « majorettes », some football supporters, some student of military academies, these mormonts… I decided to work this year on a new selection of the entire body of my « Portraits photographiques et uniformes ». I will scan my selection again (most of the scanned files on this website are really bad in colors and details). The idea is to take some time to watch my images from a different angle to define a global selection. This would be the base for an exhibition involving all my series from 1999 till now… from the plumes of my first majorettes, to the plumes of my brazilian fantasias series.
11 décembre 2008
Dennis Hopper, having a exhibition in Paris at the moment including his paintings, films, photographs… HE’S GOOD. This picture was printed in « The Observer »(UK) last month.