Ode to inspirational artists
A Tribute to the artists who have influenced me…and still inspiring…
Let me start by the numerous good books from the french literature of the 19th century. Specifically poets like Rimbaud (Une saison en enfer, A Season in Hell, 1873), Baudelaire (Les Fleurs du Mal, The Flowers of Evil, 1857).
They opened my mind to beauty, trained me put an “image” on my thoughts and further to tell a story with an image. This is a base for any photographer, what ever the style. The photo is taken in your head much before you press the button. To the french writers I can easily add painters of the same century. Paul Gauguin, Arnold Böcklin, and Caspar David Friedrich some years before.
In my teen years, I was deeply involved in the post-punk movement, cold wave and dark wave. Although I was active only 4 or 5 years, I have kept many good memories and a kind of sadness and melancolia that still flavors my black and white photographs today. I am always hunting for this surreal atmosphere that you can feel in the music of Siouxie and the Banshees, The Cure, The Systers of Mercy or Bauhaus to name just a few.
To stay on the field of surrealism, I can’t ignore the unprecedented work of David Lynch not only from the estethic side but also from the art of telling a story. Blue Velvet (1986), Lost Highway (1997) or Mulholland Drive (2001). A story is beamed into another story and realities collide. You can’t trust your eyes and can’t tell what is real. But what is reality at the end ? Is that what you see ?
Lynch himself was inspired by many directors before him. Among then, and she inspiered me as well, I can mention Maya Deren in the « Meshes of the afternoon » from 1943, one of the first b&w surreal movie.
Some more movies like Crash (Cronenberg, 1996), Dead Man (Jarmush, 1995) or even Blow Up (Antonioni, 1966) have brought me to narrative photography. Look sharply at what happens and show it as you remember it, not as it was !
Closer to photography, I am fascinated by the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson and his ability to caputre a scene just at the moment when content (the story) materializes in our wold. Less known but brilliant « surrealist » photographer is Heinz Hajek-Halke who pioneered the subjective and experimental photography. Closer to our time, I really appreciate the work from Renaud de Gambs.
