@ladybird.notes (English Text) L. Bird is an independent journalist, photographer and film maker based in Paris, France. Her work is all about storytelling, whatever it concerns, whether photography, series or short-movies. Her work’s aesthetic is mainly inspired by street and documentary photography, but in such manner as that it always turns her images into contemporary tales‌.
How did you get started in photography? L. BIRD. As far as I remember from childhood, I was the one who used to hold the family’s camera. None of its members were involved into photography. You can’t really know why a child developed a fascination for such a tool but take photographies is a stance, a way of standing to face the world. Instinctively, I guess, I felt comfortable with that position and how it becomes very quickly a source of knowledges. Later, I was a teenager, a photography, ‘The Christian falangist’ taken during the Civil war in 1978, Beirut, Libanon, by R. Depardon, a French photographer, stroke me. The framing, the composition, the angle and the storytelling of this image were so powerful that I still remember the sensation I was submerged with, when I discovered it. I realized at the same time what war was on the scale of a single man, and that some other men could risk their life to document and tell what it looks and feels like... I was ten or something and from that day I used to say: ‘When I’ll be a grown up, I will be a photojournalist.’ Studying at the university I documented that passion with strong skills about the history of all kinds of photographies, travelling and practicing photography, I learnt all I could from this collection of experiences to find different ways to document what was passing into my frame.
What does photography mean to you? L. BIRD. Photography is my vertebral column. It taught me a way to stand, to observe and listen to the people I met on the road, to my personal emotions too, to take positions and formulate my points of view, or to express, as far as it is possible, the ones of others. Photography is a fabulous tool and a heavy responsibility too. Through my viewfinder, I find a way to sight-read the grammar of this world. I also learn to use poetry when I could not find any answers to the way it questions me sometimes‌
Tell us a street story that affected your photography and the way you see things L. BIRD. I was in London, UK. I was 18 years old. One of my first trip all by myself. I was walking to the streets when I saw a homeless man, lied down on the pavement. Ηιs clothes were used. He had no bag, nothing. He was young, rolled up in a long black coat. He was on the back, face up. His eyes were closed. His face was so pale. It was so cold but the morning light, in that street, was so bright. The scene was terribly moving. In few seconds, as an individual, I felt all the sensations you can be crossed by… as a photographer I was experiencing a phenomenal dilemma. That scene was as beautiful with peacefulness as terrible with human distress… Should I take this image? I did! I took several images of this man with a wide angle and several closes up portraits. I have to confess, that I was frightened that he could wake up, at anytime… Back to Paris, when I printed these images in my darkroom, I was submerged by a deep feeling that I never felt since. These images were good. There was dignity. I never showed to anybody these photographies. There are preciously stored in a photographic paper box. That man keeps haunting me, he’s not a memory, he’s a lighthouse. This man and all the sensations I felt, thanks to him, are, in some ways, in all the images I took since that day…
Are you a professional photographer? L. BIRD. Skills and paid works, from time to time, make you a professional photographer. I am also a journalist. Both jobs belong to a fragile economy but after exploring different ways in parallel, photography and writing are still there. It’s a beautiful feeling to know what you are made of, what makes sense, lights up your face when you wake up in the morning, leads your steps through moments you live, places you wonder, people you meet, opens you to so many dimensions of this world, the worse like the most beautiful… It’s a gift.
Tell us about how you see things in your country L. BIRD. I’m French. France is a democracy, politically stable, a welfare state, were freedoms are guaranteed for all. By the way, its social and economic situations are difficult on many points like in many other countries of this part of the world. There would be so much to say about rights and the living conditions of generations of migrants since the 60’s and their consequences on the French youth, the economic crisis since the 70’s, the unemployment and its effects in some of the regions of the country, the lack of enthusiasm somewhere, somehow for changes in so many social, political and economic matters and so many more... France is an old country
which might suffer of old wounds it didn’t take care in time like many others. But It is a beautiful ground where you can grow safely, which is learning from its social diversity and richness and reinventing itself, taking advantages of centuries of its best intellectual and cultural roots and traditions...
Tell us about Doubleyedge L. BIRD. Doubleyedge is a gallery I founded and managed for more than a year now. It publishes on Instagram, black and white works by amateurs or professional photographers, from all around the world. @doubleyedge shows the kind of photographies which have always inspired me, from documentary to art. This is all about sharing and credit great works for their high quality to inspire others to document our world or the world of the published photographers. As far as a photography is good, echoes, creates an emotion, reaches your eye and your heart, it has to be seen as it can make a difference as a document or for art. It publishes single images and series. ‘Living behind bars of the Belgrade county jail’ a three years documentary work by Igor Coko based in Serbia, and ‘Psychiatric hospital’ a two years documentary work by the Italian photographer Lillo Rizzo were recently published as series. Most of the published works are quite recent but it happens that old vintage images from photographers personal archives are published too. It is a way to explore other esthetics, mobile photography doesn’t practice. Also from time to time, I explore Doubleyedge’s archives to tell with an audio recording the story of a photography which has already been published in the gallery. It is an other way to explore the fabulous storytelling potential of photography and the meaningfulness of each of its details, composition, points of view too. This gallery is an open window and I do enjoy sharing its view with so many others which might be interested in stopping by to have a seat and look in the same direction, that I do…
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