Chris Friel / Franck Duval / HIRØ / Red Toy / Traer Scott / Little K. / Éric Battistelli / GELIBRE / Ellie Brown / Thomas Szczepanski / Louise Imagine / Sabine Jesse-Kniesel / Leonie Polah / Hélène Pé
ISSUE 090909
S U M M A R Y
HORIZON AUTRE
SWEET AND STRONG
ERRANCES
BEHIND THE SUN
I HAVE A DREAM
BEING HUMAN
IN A FRAME
Chris Friel INTERVIEW of the painter street artist Franck Duval HIRØ INTERVIEW of the illustrator Red Toy « STREET DOGS » Traer Scott INTERVIEW of the sculptor painter Little K. Éric Battistelli INTERVIEW of the association GELIBRE « SEVEN DAY CONCEPTUAL RELATIONSHIP PROJECT » Ellie Brown INTERVIEW of the movie director Thomas Szczepanski Louise Imagine INTERVIEW of the painter Sabine Jesse-Kniesel Leonie Polah INTERVIEW of the jewel designer Hélène Pé
HORIZON AUTRE
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Chris Friel INTERVIEW of the painter street artist Franck Duval
C H R I S F R I E L
INTERVIEW ABOUT YOU… A British amateur who picked up a camera in 2006. Colour blind so shoot everything in black and white. Hate computers so everything is in camera BW JPEG with minimal editing. Like tilt shift lenses. Shoot nearly everything now with an old 45mm canon tilt shift lens. Painted for many years and like the immediacy of digital photography. YOUR INSPIRATION… Looking at other people photos. Flickr is a great source of new ideas. And a great way to find out quickly if something works or not. YOUR WISHES FOR TOMORROW ? Aim is to take a photo I still like the next day http://www.flickr.com/photos/cfriel/
F R A N C K D U V A L
INTERVIEW YOUR ARTISTIC BACKGROUND I started painting and drawing twenty years ago, testing different techniques and media until 1997, when I started doing collages. I discovered a particular method of collage with sellotape, by chance, in 2000. I started building up my universe by diverting, deconstructing, breaking apart, ungluing and tearing to pieces heaps of magazines, flyers and posters. The characters are always very important in my creations. Side by side with this technique I have been doing street art since 2000. I dress my characters with collages taken from old magazines and I put them on the walls in places like Paris, New York, Barcelona, Turin, London, Berlin… It is a way for me to infiltrate the city landscape and to share my colourful universe. In 2008 I published a booklet about this work, entitled “FKDL Figures”, 64 pages, colour (edition limited to 1000 copies). A UNIQUE TECHNIQUE… Some people speak of «Sellotape Art». I call it «collage with transparent adhesive film», but it’s longer and less fun! I registered this technique with the INPI under the name of FKDL, to be recognized as the «father» of this technique because what I am interested in, above all, is to share it as I meet people, travel or exhibit my work. YOUR INSPIRATION… It can be walls, streets, cities, passers by, chance encounters, artists, newspapers, old magazines, the news, museums, nature… SOME VERY PRECISE ASSEMBLING… Yes, some very precise assembling that sometimes makes me crazy. It keeps me up all night, seduces me and also gives me a great sense of freedom.
YOUR PROJECTS… A few exhibitions... • Tales from the Seaside (group show) July 11th, Brighton (UK) www.prescriptionart.com • Le Tour de Franck July 11th – August 23th, Yonne, France Les rencontres contemporaines de Treigny www.rencontrescontemporaines.com • Strada Facendo (group show) September, 10th, Turin (It) Gallery ArteGiovane www.artegiovane.it/frame.asp Gallery SINCE, solo show ( Upian - Rojo Artspace), Paris http://since.upian.com/
http://www.fkdl.com http://www.fkdl.com/blog http://www.flickr.com/photos/fkdl/
Depuis son lancement en 1998, Actuphoto a su s’imposer parmi les media culturels consacrés à l’actualité photographique ce qui lui a permis d’acquérir la confiance des plus grands organisateurs d’événements photographiques tels que l’agence VU, Magnum photo, la Maison Européenne de la Photographie, le Jeu de Paume, Paris Photo...
LES SERVICES Aux lecteurs • Les annonces des expositions dans toutes les villes où la photographie a joué et joue encore un rôle historique • Les actualités récentes du monde de la photographie • Une sélection d’ouvrages et de parutions • La couverture des principales manifestations, festivals, colloques, rencontres, salons ou signatures… • Un accès gratuit aux alertes par email Aux photographes • L’annonce des concours, prix, bourses, appels à candidature • L’annuaire des professionnels de la photographie • Une rubrique CARTE BLANCHE mettant en avant des photographes originaux et marginaux à découvrir • Un espace membre permettant aux professionnels, amateurs et photographes d’échanger des informations et de soumettre leurs communiqués de presse ou événements
SWEET AND STRONG
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HIRØ INTERVIEW of the illustrator Red Toy
H I R Ø
INTERVIEW WHY DO YOU CHOOSE PHOTOGRAPHY ? When I was a child, I was not outgoing. I preferred to be alone with my imagination over the company of other children. For me photography was a magic ticket to freely travel between imagination and reality. When I looked through a camera’s viewfinder, I could at any time have an adventure in a fantastic world. POETRY IN YOUR PICTURES… I try not to perfectly capture reality with my photographs. I want people who see my photographs to feel a story. I only write the prologue to a poem. I include only what is necessary to bring out the imagination. The viewers’ imaginations complete the poem. YOUR WISHES FOR TOMORROW ? I want transcend the boundaries of language & culture and use photography to communicate people all the world. I would also like to try imagery & music. I want to find a way, both broad & deep, of expressing myself that is mine alone. http://fotologue.jp/hiro-fd23/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/hiro-fd/
R E D T O Y
INTERVIEW YOUR BACKGROUND… I was born in Lima-Perú in the seventies, studied graphic design and I work in publicity, in Portugal. I arrived in 2000 to Barcelona looking for new perspectives and ways of thinking, the result could not be better: I found thousands of ways of viewing the world and especially with people from all over the world. I started doing photography and used it as a new tool in my graphic work. WHAT INSPIRES YOU ? In any communication, direct expression of emotions, of my obsessions, visual, without saying a word HOW DO YOU CREATE ? From sensations and my state of mind, the tools used are also important. YOU ILLUSTRATE A KIND OF URBAN JUNGLE… Definitely with a lot of personality. PLANS FOR THE FUTURE… Create and communicate with my work (and expose my work too) http://redtoy70.blogspot.com
Lucie Pastureau et Lionel Pralus exposition « PROCHE(S) » Du samedi 5 au 12 septembre 2009 – prolongation du lundi au samedi de 15h – 19h 1, rue du sauvage et 8 rue Maïsto - 13200 Arles 04 90 49 89 40 - atelierdumidi@orange.fr Accueil des scolaires : mêmes heures et sur rendez vous le matin Pour cette 3e saison « Autour d’une Rentrée en Images » la galerie L’atelier du midi présente le travail de Lucie Pastureau et Lionel Pralus, jeunes artistes prometteurs. Si chacun s’est choisi un vocabulaire photographique singulier, ils partagent un goût commun pour la vie de leurs proches, pour les sujets familiaux, pour les adolescents, pour suggérer que c’est dans l’ordinaire que l’étrangeté demeure. Leurs images nous rappellent à nos souvenirs et signalent les questions du repli familial et des secrets, de l’héritage culturel, de la nostalgie d’une enfance aux inhibitions de l’adolescence, entre exaltation et retenue, ou encore de l’ambivalence du positionnement social. Autant de sujets qui intéressent les scolaires.
ERRANCES
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« STREET DOGS » Traer Scott INTERVIEW of the sculptor photographer Little K.
T R A E R S C O T T
INTERVIEW HOW DO YOU BECOME A PHOTOGRAPHER ? I have always been fascinated with photos and the concept of constructing memory. I began working in a darkroom when I was 10 and my dad gave me my first SLR on my 11th birthday. I remember very vividly the first time I began to cognitively translate feelings into metaphorical visual concepts which happened a bit later at 18. Once I saw the pictures in my head, I realized that I had found my vocabulary for translating life. I am very fortunate to have been able to make a successful career doing what I love as well as be able to publish books about important issues that are very close to my heart. ABOUT THIS SERIE ? Street Dogs explores the lives, deaths, and rescue of dogs living alone and in packs on the streets of Puerto Rico and Mexico. In making Street Dogs, I traveled extensively with animal rescuers throughout urban and rural areas of both countries in an attempt to document the many facets of animal abandonment and abuse as well along with the efforts being made to bring about change. Street Dogs was published as a hardcover book by Merrell Publishers in 2007. The book is available at Amazon.com, all major bookstores and at the ASPCA online store. A percent of all proceeds from book sales are donated to the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA). YOUR PROJECTS, WISHES FOR TOMORROW ? I have a number of projects that are currently in various stages of completion. The Hungry Ghost is a collection of narrative portraits exploring myth, legend and ritual. It is all shot in and under water. I am currently shopping this series to publishers and have also just started work on a new book about the human/animal bond. www.traerscott.com
CHILL OUT L I T T L E K
HOW WHERE YOUR CHARACERS BORN ? One day I was using modelling clay and I created a character I specifically wanted featureless. The idea of the empty hood came from that. They are also influenced by urban culture, hip hop clothing and skateboard cultures. There is also something sprite-like to them. It quickly dawned on me to expose these characters to the outside world and to use them to get back the urban environment, actually close to the skate way of life. WHAT MEDIA DO YOU USE ? The characters are made from Fimo, a modeling paste that is very easy to use, already coloured. You only need to cook it in a conventional kitchen oven to harden it. Modeling is about building an object in a way that is based on deformation and adaptation, which are also characteristics that are present in my creations. It gives meaning to an artistic practice that is based upon adaptation. Finally, I like the childlike quality of modeling paste. WHAT ABOUT PUTTING THE WORK IN CONTEXT ? It is the city and its architecture that guide my choices. It is mainly photographs, a place presented as a landscape with the characters in the foreground. I compose the scenes according to three elements: Place, support and character. These constraints are sometimes harsh: I can’t always choose the best place because I have to make do with the city itself. As for the photograph, I usually place the camera level with the sculpture. I always use a wide angle, so that I can show an overview of the site and place the characters in the environment I chose for them. I don’t go out of my way to put them in places that are hard to reach. Quite often they are in public spaces.
WHAT ABOUT THE THINGS THEY DO ? My characters don’t do anything special and that enables a kind of story to develop. They are chillin’, they are at rest, waiting. They are, because of their attitude, outside time. They only start living for real once placed in their environment. The point is not only what is present but also the props or the scenario. Chilling out is a way of life, a way to experience your living space, to explore it as you would a playground. YOUR PROJECTS ? After Japan, I would like to take a chillin’ trip to Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. I am thinking about New York too. Otherwise, I carry on exploring the suburbs of Paris and the rest of France. www.myspace.com/andrekimart
BEHIND THE SUN
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Eric Battistelli INTERVIEW of the association GELIBRE
É R I C B A T T I S T E L L I
Text by Laurence Guenoun «A talented man. A glance upon the other. An eye beyond the photograph. Beyond the objective. Beyond any mediocrity. Mediocrity that he hates more than everything else. But he tolerates, bears, grabs and transforms. He plays with lights, transparencies, glances, landscapes and faces. He sublimates. Far beyond the bruises of heart and body. Eric, brother, you were able to take us to paradise, to sublimate ordinary life. That’s why I like your photograph, brother. I like your humility. I like your look upon life.» http://www.ericbattistelli.com/
A S S O C I A T I O N G E L I B R E
INTERVIEW WHAT ARE THE CURRENT CONCERNS ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES IN SPAIN ? Spain has known a significant increase in the number of small green organizations (nationally and locally), who unite to fight against what they consider as aggressions against the environment, due to uncontrolled urban growth that destroys the landscape and the natural resources. They work towards protecting and rehabilitating landscapes, preserving hydroelectrical resources as well as natural water sources, protecting wild life and enforcing the respect and the increase of zones ZEPA for the protection of birds. WHEN WAS GELIBRE CREATED ? Gelibre is an typical example of a support group created in 2005 in a village with 625 inhabitant, a village that was threatened by three urbanization projects planning the building of 2000 houses, which would have meant the destruction of nearly one and a half million square kilometers of forest land. This would have atomized the local community and would have been of any benefit only to speculators and property developers, who acted like sharks and showed no desire whatsoever to self regulate. It is now four years later, and GELIBRE has 9 members and is very active in protecting the environment. GELIBRE ACTIONS… In association with “Acció Ecologista–AGRÓ”, we have been fighting against three senseless urbanization projects (two of them have been abandoned, but one last one is still menacing our unique landscape). We have also taken to courts property developers guilty of illegally building on off limits land. They are now accused of embezzlement, money laundering and environmental offences. Gelibre complained against pollution and the transformation of forest land into agricultural zones. We also lodged a complaint against irregularities in the concessions granted for the exploitation of stone quarries and demanded that the legal rules about exploitation, particularly regarding atmospheric pollution and the obligation to restore the illegally destroyed landscapes, be followed
FUTURE ACTIONS GELIBRE constituted itself as plaintiff in the trial opened against building on not urbanizable grounds, so that the law be respected. We shall launch judicial court actions if the projects of urbanization were approved by the “Conselleria de Medio ambiante». We are going to carry on with acting against the running of quarries situated too close to human communities according to the legal standards. We shall participate actively in the elaboration of the new «General Plan of Occupation of Grounds «. In any case, we shall remain watchful and we shall denounce all activity that is susceptible to damage the environment. jpons90@yahoo.es http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/810792
Digital Photo Professional, plus communément appelé «DPP», est le logiciel de traitement d’images édité par Canon et fourni gratuitement avec tous les reflex numériques de la marque. Spécialisé dans le développement des fichiers RAW «Canon», il permet aussi de travailler au post-traitement des images JPEG et TIFF via une interface simple et des outils judicieusement choisis, faciles à appréhender et à maîtriser. Ainsi, en plus d’être le seul logiciel capable de donner accès à toute l’information contenue dans les fichiers CR2 issus des boîtiers Canon, ce «dématriceur» qui a sa place parmi les meilleurs du marché est un formidable outil d’apprentissage du traitement des fichiers RAW pour les photographes qui travailleraient pour la première fois avec un logiciel de développement. Cet e-book est le tout premier titre en langue française entièrement dédié à DPP. Après une présentation des principales fonctionnalités du logiciel et un rappel des notions essentielles à un traitement d’images maîtrisé (exposition, luminosité, histogramme…), il propose une découverte par la pratique des points forts du logiciel à travers une vingtaine d’exemples concrets détaillés pas à pas.
I HAVE A DREAM
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« SEVEN DAY CONCEPTUAL RELATIONSHIP PROJECT » Ellie Brown INTERVIEW of the director Thomas Szczepanski
E L L I E B R O W N
SEVEN DAY CONCEPTUAL RELATIONSHIP PROJECT COULD YOU EXPLAIN US THIS PROJECT ? The story started with the craigslist advertisement below. The story ends with a true collaboration on the project. This resulted in a narrative of a truncated relationship based on social norms that both Zach Webber (the creator of the concept) and myself (the photographer) don’t necessarily fit into in our own minds. We wanted to try living this life in a way that is not making fun of those who choose this path, but rather to try it on for size so to speak. There were many unexpected emotional layers that surfaced for both of us during the project, mainly resulting from unexpected real reactions in fictional situations. Mostly we are proud of how convincing this project was for us as well as the people we encountered along the way. We didn’t know what to expect going into the project and the outcome was the result of this organic collaboration we found developing a real working relationship within the boundaries of a fictional relationship. Please read more details here: http://sevendayrelationship.blogspot.com/
Seeking partner for conceptual seven-day-long relationship Reply to: xxxxx@craigslist.org Date: 2009-03-24, 4:03AM Okay, here’s my idea: I want to participate in a conceptual capsule relationship, which would essentially be an attempt to artificially concentrate a long-term relationship of several years into a period of seven days. During the seven-day span of our relationship, we’d move from the stage of initial flirtation into marriage, child-rearing, and finally divorce. This would involve a lot of play-acting at times, since once we set the relationship in motion, our actions and expressed emotions would be heavily shaped by the constructs of a stereotypical relationship. The goal would be to stick to our imposed guidelines as much as possible, placing ourselves in various situations in order to watch how the scenes play out between the two of us. It’s sort of the relationship equivalent of a haiku: very structured and very short. I’d imagine we’d want to talk prior to officially starting our relationship in order to hash out the details, but here’s a basic, day-by-day outline of what I’ve got in mind: Day 1: -We arrange to have a chance meeting on the street, where we strike up a conversation and exchange numbers. Day 2: -We have our first date we go out to dinner, catch a movie, maybe hold hands afterwards. Day 3: -We’re head-over-heels in love! We go on a romantic walk, we cuddle, we share a malted at a diner and stare deeply into one another’s eyes. -At some point during the day, I propose to you in a public place. You accept. -That night, we separately hold bachelor/bachelorette parties with our own groups of friends. Day 4: -Our Wedding Day. That morning we get somebody to pretend to marry us in a private ceremony. Maybe we can tie tin cans to the backs of our bikes and ride away. -After our wedding, we embark on our honeymoon. Regional Rail to Atlantic City, right? Day 5: -We’re expecting. You put a balloon under your shirt and we go around to baby stores, checking out the merchandise. We sure are excited! Day 6: -Having secured a thrift-store stroller and a baby doll, we heavily swaddle our child in blankets and push the little cutie around the city. -Unfortunately, we start to bicker. As the day wears on, this bickering worsens.
E L L I E B R O W N
Day 7: -Dramatically, we split up. One of us gains full custody of our child, and the other is deeply resentful. -In the final act of our capsule relationship, we bump into one another, once more, in a public place. This time, it’s very awkward. At this point, our capsule relationship will have ended, and we will be broken up. NOTE: A friend of mine had an idea for an alternate ending that would involve you and I aging and gradually growing disenchanted with one another, which would necessitate rearranging some of the above «days» around to allow for a «boring domestic day» in which we’d spend a few hours sitting around the house watching serialized television together and not having too much to say to one another over dinner (spaghetti?) when we ask each other how our days have been. So, you know, all of this is totally up for discussion! I think it’d be a lot of fun, and I really hope somebody wants to do this with me. Even if you’re not interested in actually participating yourself, I’d love to get your feedback. And yes, I am willing to send a photo your way if you’re legitimately interested and feel that a photo is something you’ll need to see. Please email me with any questions or comments. THE CONCLUSION OF THIS PROJECT ? Zach: This experience has taught me a lot about the value of dating rituals. If you’re on a date, and both parties recognize it as such, then a great amount of communication has already been achieved. The two of you, ostensibly, are playing roles, and as long as you play them well, the date should be considered a success. Behaviors that would seem totally inappropriate for near-strangers to engage in are suddenly completely within the realm of possibility when that «DATE» label is stamped on to the interaction. Sexuality and romantic attachment can be volatile things, and society has its ways of controlling them. Lots of people use alcohol as a sort of a loophole, but alcohol-fueled hookups are as much as a societally-prescribed ritual as the dinner-and-a-movie date. It’s just amazing how comforting these rituals can be. People like playing these parts-- that’s clearer to me now than ever before. I guess that, in spite of all my reservations, I like playing them too. These dating rituals provide us with a way of managing our emotions and desires, which is a pretty appealing thing. The forest of love is a much darker and more foreboding place if they’re not there to mark our trail.
Ellie: The time for the real ending of the project is now. This is not the ending of the capsule relationship which has already occurred and felt a bit anti-climatic and unresolved, but the ending of a real and working relationship. Zach is going away for the summer while being unreachable via modern conveniences and is uncertain about the geography of his future plans. It seems as if our working relationship is finished. This is very sad to me because I did (and still do) have grand plans for the project and now I feel that they are squelched because of his absence. I don’t feel comfortable taking on the entire project on my own, though at times, I may have to and have already. I am also losing contact with my friend and partner. This to me is a much bigger loss then the capsule relationship ending. It is a huge re-adjustment to get used a life without him to talk to, plan, work with and hang out with. Since we met it was a constant and intense period of time together. We learned that by playing a relationship, we actually formed a relationship to both of our surprise. AND TOMORROW ? Ellie: Zach and I were talking about starting a website as a home base for other people who wanted to try out a conceptual relationship and use the site to document their experiences. I think its an interesting concept. I just wonder how many people would be interested in doing this and how we would find them. Secondly, we are self-publishing a book about project which will be available near the end of July. This will have writing from both of us and images from the project. Check out the blog for updates: http://sevendayrelationship.blogspot.com Lastly I have some people talking to me about exhibiting the work and so I am interested to see what form that will take since it will be only me dealing with the installation. For anyone who is in Philadelphia on July 8th, I will be speaking at the project at the First Person Arts Salon. Again, check the blog for details.
http://www.elliebrown.com http://www.flickr.com/photos/elliebrown http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/336532
T H O M A S S Z C Z E P A N S K I
INTERVIEW YOUR FIRST MEMORY AS A SPECTATOR… I would say Marty McFly’s De Lorean. This movie was a real experience for me. Coming out of the theatre, I really felt like I had travelled back in time. After that, my first trauma occurred when I asked my mum to take me to see Coppola’s Nosferatu. I was nine years old and in the movie Dracula didn’t look like Dracula at all (I imagined him dark haired, handsome, with a dashing Italian haircut) and I saw Monica Bellucci naked and blood thirsty rising from her bed and biting Dracula’s bollocks… No wonder I became a bit weird after having seen that film, is it? WHY TURN TO DIRECTING ? Because I didn’t want to be a fireman like my school friends. For a long time I lied at school so that I could be taken seriously, and then one day I wrote “Film Director” on the sheet that every schoolboy has to fill in at the beginning of the year. The teacher stared at me, wondering if I was right in the head. I was sent to the career advisor’s office. Despite the poor woman’s efforts and the posters on the walls hailing all sorts of vocational courses, I left her office still wanting to be a film director. It was obvious to me that it was a good choice. When I saw that one of my parents’ friends had a video camera, I was overcome by the desire to tell a story about a precious stone (I had seen Boorman’s Forest). COULD YOU GIVE US A BRIEF RESUME OF « MAMA LOVA » ? Forsaken by his mother, Lucas grows up in a boarding school. The day he turns 20, he decides to return to the south of France on a search for his father and his roots. During this journey of self-discovery, he comes across Lili, age 27, a young photographer who is also trying to unite her own broken family. They will share their family strife and learn as much about each other as about themselves
IS THERE A SPECIAL MEMORY ABOUT THE FILMING YOU’D LIKE TO SHARE ? I don’t really remember anything in particular. Every filming is an adventure. Even if you are well prepared, there is always something happening. I have never known a filming when everything goes smoothly. I don’t even know if such a thing exists. I think a shoot (the way I have done them so far) is the best way to know someone. The team goes through a lot together. My best memory about Mama Lova will remain la “Caserne” (the barracks), which was nothing more than a flat where we all slept on top of one another for a fortnight. I must add that we were all men. As for the filming itself, I could tell a thousand stories, as something new was happening every day. The smaller the budget, the more you need to make do and improvise to make things work. YOUR PROJECTS ? I have a few things on the go at the moment. I am working on editing my second full length movie, called “Run if you can”, a genre movie about a manhunt, co written with Francois Gaillard (the director, not the composer). I am looking for some help with post synchronization and the score. I am also looking for a distributor… Anyone interested? A trailer is available here: www.myspace.com/runifyoucanlefilm I am also writing a feature film with my friend Antonin Schopper (who directed “Deja”, which was selected for an award at LOCARNO), we are going to direct it together. A few scenarios have already been drafted, we are now working to make it perfect, hoping that a film company will fall in love with it and help us out to bring it to term. http://www.myspace.com/szczepanskithomas http://www.myspace.com/mamalovalefilm
BEING HUMAN
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Louise Imagine INTERVIEW of the painter Sabine Jesse-Kniesel
L O U I S E I M A G I N E
INTERVIEW A WOMAN’S LOOK ON ANOTHER WOMAN… It’s about two girlfriends who know each other for a few years now. They care about each other a lot. It’s also the particular story of a break. I don’t plan, or impose anything, especially for nude photography. I just wait and let the model express herself. Then, little by little, interaction rises, and so does the real dialogue... And we create together. A BEAUTY… A natural beauty… It took me an afternoon to take these pictures in daylight. The model made it all... A CERTAIN DELICACY… Thin skinned, I hope so… Take nude pictures and preserve her decency, respect the model...that would be perfect! http://www.flickr.com/photos/louiseimagine/
S J E S S E K N I E S E L
INTERVIEW TELL US ABOUT YOUR RECENT WORK… Last year, my work was about circles. No end, no beginning : the rhythm of the seasons, the biological regular pattern of changes. SO, YOUR WORK IS FOLLOWING CIRCLES? There is not only one solution, so I develope different points of views of the same theme. It’s like a movie : put all pictures together and you’ll understand what I’m talking about. YOUR FAVOURITES THEMES… Circumstances of a person’s life. YOUR PROJECTS… Documentaries. For example : expression of the political or living situations through painting. Now I research the modern life of Spanish women, showing the antagonism between their emancipation from church and family. www.jesse-kniesel.de
IN A FRAME
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Leonie Polah INTERVIEW of the jewel designer Hélène Pé
L E O N I E P O L A H
INTERVIEW HOW DO YOU BECOME A PHOTOGRAPHER ? In the general (first) year of the art academy, we had photography – among other courses. I was not very good in the darkroom, it was always crowded and it irritated me that I had to do a lot of work, before I could tell if the image was even close to what I had intended. So I decided photography was not for me, and majored in painting. Then, some thirty odd years later, the digital camera was invented. It changed my life. ABOUT THIS SERIE, IF I TELL YOU SYMMETRY, URBANITY… The images shown here are not a series as such. Only the second, third and fourth picture were meant to go together. But all images are made in urban surroundings. Mostly Amsterdam, but also one from Rotterdam and one from Berlin. I would definitely say I am an urban photographer. I usually take shots that are abstract in composition, have clear forms in it, but diffused by either the light, or the glass and reflections between me and the subject. As for the symmetry; you are right. I tend to focus on what I see as the main event in the image. I also like the restfulness resulting from it. Sloping horizons, blurred surfaces or , placing subjects on the edge of the shot I often find too pretentious artistic. YOUR PROJECTS… I have done a photo project of the demolition of a synagogue. No reportage photography, but an impression in light and shadow of the different details. In future I would like to make such a series on a building site. At the moment I also do a lot of street photographing. Trying my hand at photographing humans, and also to become more at ease with people being around and commenting while I am taking pictures. http://www.flickr.com/photos/polah2006/
H É L È N E P É
INTERVIEW HOW DO YOU CREATE YOUR JEWELRY ? I started with painting, but I was very much attracted to small format work. The idea to adapt my paintings into brooches and necklaces came to me naturally. I haven’t had any training in design, so I learnt the craft on my own, by finding the right address, hunted through car boot sales and by patiently putting things together. I usually start by drawing little characters and, depending on the story I want to tell and the colours I use, I create the pieces around them. All my drawings are original works and the jewels are signed, which means that each piece is unique. YOUR CHARACTERS ARE COLOURFUL, CHILDLIKE… I am strongly influenced by the Japanese manga culture (Miyasaki) as well as by Disney characters (the nice ones and the bad ones too). Moustache, my hysterical cat, is also one of my muses. WHAT ARE YOUR CURRENT PROJECTS ? Aside from creating new jewelry, I am preparing a group exhibition on the theme of Peter Pan at the gallery “l’Art de rien” in Paris, and a solo show, for which I still need a venue. www.helenepe.com www.helenepe.etsy.com
Photos BY Camille Martin©
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