Txema Salvans at the Festival

date: 21/04/2018
start: 14:00
duration: 1h30
location: Rotondes- Platforme (Rotonde1) (map)
language: English
entrance fee :  5€

“The most intense way of observing everyday life”

Txema Salvans is a Catalan photographer born in 1971. He chose photography because “it is the most intense way of observing and experiencing everyday life”. Txema began studying biology at the University of Barcelona before joining the International Center of Photography in New York. His first exhibitions took place in the 1990s at the Museum of Modern Art in Madrid. In 2003, he exhibited at VISA for Image. Since 2000, he has authored many photo books. For the past two decades, Txema Salvans has developed a documentary approach outside the conventional photojournalist platforms, in photoessays that balance critical thinking with a poetic sense of humour. His book project “Nice to Meet You” (Actar, 2005) received the 2005 PhotoEspaña award for best Spanish photobook. “The Waiting Game” (RM, 2014), winner of the 2012 Iberoamerican Photobook Competition, explores prostitution and the necessity of desire along the Mediterranean coastline of Spain.

Txema will speak about his approach to street photography, how he starts a project and about his books.
The audience will have the possibility to ask questions at the end during the Q&A part.

In addition Txema will take part at the discussion panel after the conferences.


date: 21/04/2018
start: 14:00
duration: 1h30
location: Rotondes- Platforme (Rotonde1) (map)
language: English
entrance fee :  5€

 

Interview: Gilles Kayser

Stranger than paradise

 

Interview by Paulo Lobo
pictures of Gilles Kayser by Lynn Theisen

“It was all about exploring and experiencing life with a camera at hand.”

“Street photography is a mirror of the society that we live in”

Gilles Kayser on Instagram

His pictures, taken in Japan and Hong Kong, have captivated us. They have this special mixture of ethereal mood and distinguished alienation, of luminous clarity and diffuse strangeness. When you look at Gilles Kayser’s photos, you just have to keep looking at them : they grab you deeply and you don’t really know why. It’s not a question of technical virtuosity, it’s more something like a poetical eye.

How did you choose photography as a means of expression ?

Back in High school I was always struggling through art classes. My grades reflected that I did the bare minimum just to pass. I couldn’t find any interest in paintings and art installations… The only thing that always interested me was photography. Looking at the fact that I draw like a five-year-old and can’t sing, it became quite natural to pick photography as my mean of expression.

What were your main milestones in practicing photography ?

Some three years ago, I bought a decent camera and started to shoot photos in the streets together with a good friend. We used to compare each other’s photos and criticize each other’s work. His technique was slightly better, a fact which motivated me to improve.  This was when my obsession for street photography started. I never took any classes nor participated in any workshops. It was all about exploring and experiencing life with a camera at hand.

What photographers – past and present – do you admire or influence your approach ?

Studying the work of other photographers that one admires is an essential part of improving as a photographer.

When it comes to past generations photographers, I admire the work of Fan Ho who captured 1950’s and 60’s Hong Kong with excellent use of light and shadows. Another superb street photographer is Daido Moriyama, known for his gritty black and white shots of Tokyo. A big local influence is Sven Becker who has a very interesting and subtle style of documenting life. Furthermore, I am influenced everyday by a huge number of good pictures I see on Instagram.

What is the main purpose of taking pictures for you?

For me photography is a way of expressing myself. It’s a medium to show people how I perceive the world. It allows me to communicate with the viewer. And most importantly, I enjoy doing it and I have fun.

What specific domain in photography is of interest to you (portrait, reportage, street, conceptual…)?

My main interest lies in street and documentary photography but I do appreciate other domains and genres of photography. I also love portraits that are shot in an urban setting as well as architecture photography.

In what form do you exhibit your « street » photos?

I had the opportunity to be part of two Street Photography Luxembourg Slide night events. Apart from that I didn’t have any exhibitions so far. I mainly use Instagram, as it is a good tool to show some of my work to a wide and varied audience, while allowing me to interact with photographers from all over the world.

What do you think about the current state of photography, and the fact that it has become probably the most popular artistic practice?

First, I think that it has never been easier or cheaper to express yourself through photography. Cheap cameras and smartphones have made photography much more accessible than it was a couple of decades ago. This phenomenon is encouraging more and more young people to get into photography and to express themselves through this art, making it easier for talent to emerge.

On the other hand, I observe that more and more amateur photographers are using their hobby just as a tool to earn extra money. Because of the proliferation of photographers, most people can’t even distinguish between “good” and “bad” photography. This phenomenon often comes to the expense of quality and it is hurting many among the young and not-so-young passionate photographers who have had the courage to make a job out of photography. So please stop charging 200 euros for crappy baby photos.

What does street photography mean to you?

Street photography is a mirror of the society that we live in. It is a way of documenting the human condition and the environment that we engage with. It is a pure form of photography. My own street photography always takes place in an urban setting. I feel inspired by cities and try to capture candid untouched moments on the streets.

In the streets/public spaces, what kind of situations catch your eye and make you stop and shoot?

I love to walk around an area and observe life around me. I take pictures of whatever inspires me, which could be random scenes happening in the street, interactions between people and the environment they live in. I look for interesting light and harsh shadows to give my images a dramatic feeling. Especially at night, I try to capture the light pollution that lingers in the cities, in the attempt of creating photos that express a moody atmosphere.

What is your connection with the people you photograph in the streets ? Do you look for getting in contact or do you just catch the passing silhouettes ? What distance to your subject?

My goal is to capture raw unchanged moments. I will try to remain as unnoticed as possible. If people catch me taking pictures of them I will smile at them. This made me get out alive of all situations so far. For me it is extremely important to respect the people I take pictures of.

Are you more like improvising in the flow of the city, or do you put yourself specific goals or missions?

Everything I do is pretty much improvised. Since photography is my hobby I don’t have any deadlines or specific missions. I will just go with the flow and enjoy myself out there.

What is your favorite camera/lens for shooting in the streets?

I personally use a Fujifilm camera with a 28mm prime lens. For me it is crucial to use a small set up for street photography. It does not matter much what camera you use, even a modern smartphone will do the trick.

What is your feeling concerning street photography in Luxembourg (Lux City or other places in Grand-Duchy)? Do you have kind of favorite spots?

Street photography has become quite popular in our small country, mostly thanks to the formation of the Street Photography Luxembourg collective and their well-organized events around the subject.

Being extremely diverse and multicultural, Luxembourg can be an interesting place for street photography. My favorite spot used to be the area around the Centre Hamilius (RIP). Other interesting spots are the area around the “Gare” as well as Bonnevoie.

Personally, though, I feel that the small size of the city as well as the number of people I know when walking around the city often hold me back from taking street photos.

Do you think a photographer is entitled to photograph anything in the streets?  What do you think should be his/her limits?

As I mentioned before it is important to respect the subjects on the street. If I notice that someone doesn’t want to be photographed I will not take a picture of that person. I’m not a fan of Bruce Gilden’s modus operandi, which basically involves him jumping in front of people and blinding them with his handheld flash. That’s bullshit, show some respect.

Your Asia experience : What cities have interested you most? And why?

Tokyo and Hong Kong are the places that fascinated me the most. The amount of aural and visual stimuli both places offer is just insane.

I love Tokyo for its diversity, each area has its own identity. Some parts are overwhelmingly crowded; others are just quiet and local. To me Tokyo has something dark and mysterious about it. No matter how much time you spent there, you can never understand this place. The city gives me a weird surreal sensation.

Hong Kong on the other hand is much more straightforward. It’s really crowded, noisy and full of life. The amount of dodgy back alleys and glimmering neon signs give it a movie like atmosphere. It is a blend between East and West. The contrast between its two sides reaches its peak when comparing the more Chinese Kowloon side to the westernized island side. Hong Kong is very energizing. Every time I leave Hong Kong I feel like I am missing out on life.

Tell us about this journey and the way you took photos over there?

My trip lasted seven weeks. After a week in Hong Kong, I went to Shanghai and then stayed a whole month in Japan. There, I visited a lot of different cities, such as Tokyo and Osaka, as well as some smaller places like Takamatsu and Kochi. After that I explored Taipei and went back to Hong Kong before heading back to Luxembourg. While exploring the different places I always had my camera with me and just took randomly pictures of whatever caught the attention of my eye. It was all about getting lost and enjoying the vibe of the places.

What distance and relation did you adopt towards the people you photographed?

As I mentioned before I do not ask for permission when shooting on the streets. There is not much interaction between the subjects and me. Often people don’t even notice that I am taking a picture of them. If they do I will smile or greet them friendly. I’m a rather quiet person so this way of shooting reflects my personality.

Why did you shoot in black-and-white?

There is no rational way of deciding whether I edit my pictures in black-and-white or colour. It all depends on my mood as well as on the atmosphere that I want to transmit trough my images. Both have advantages as well as disadvantages.

What countries/cities are you interested to discover and photograph in future?

In the future, I plan to visit the eastern part of Europe, as I haven’t been there so far. Furthermore, I fancy a trip to Seoul as well as exploring some Chinese megacities.

Museum Night 2017 – Review

text  by Véronique Fixmer

Our collective took part in this year’s edition of the “Nuit des Musées”. As we are currently represented with about 20 pictures in the temporary exhibition “Leit an der Stad” we were recruited by the “Lëtzebuerg City Museum” to do several guided tours on the night of museums for this street photography themed exhibition.

Over the course of the night, we guided groups of people through the exhibition, gave them general information about street photography, the evolution of cameras and their impact on this particular type of photography, and more specific insights on the pictures of our collective. Where possible, we tried to answer any if not all questions asked and often we ended up in interesting conversations about the art of street photography and its evolution over time.

The tours were well visited, even though it was at times hard to keep people regrouped in the very crowded rooms of the museum. It was a very interesting evening as it gave us insights into the audience interested in street photography. It was nice to see that many people thought positively about street photography; just as much about the historical depiction of the streets of Luxembourg as of the contemporary form, vastly represented by our collective and other Luxembourgish photographers. More guided tours led by the members of our collective are planned throughout the period of the exhibition and will be announced via our website/facebook page and instagram.

Workshop with Paulo Lobo on 4/11/2017

On 4/11/2017 Street Photography Luxembourg is organising it’s first street photography workshop held by it’s member Paulo Lobo.

The workshop covers the basics of street photography, the different techniques, a closer look at our gear and how to act in public.

To get more information and know how to register, please follow the link below.

read more…

Interview: Patrick Galbats Street Photographer from Luxembourg

 

Interview by Paulo Lobo

Luxembourg City is still a small paradise for street photographers

 

Patrick Galbats was born in 1978 in Luxembourg.

In 2002, he finishes his studies of photography in the « École Supérieure des Arts de l’Image » (« le septante-cinq ») in Brussels. Bruxelles. Between 2011 and 2016, he was the official photographer of the weekly Lëtzebuerger Land. He got missions from several NGOs which took him to Haiti, Ethiopia, the Philippines, Bolivia and Cameroon. Since 2001, Galbats has undertaken regular journeys to Romania. Since 2012, he has been focussing on the impact of Europe without borders on Roma musicians’ communities from the northeast of Romania.

In his personal works, Patrick Galbats shows a special interest towards society and its evolutions. In the course of the years, he has moved gradually from social reportage to documentary photography. The landscape takes more scale in his approach. He uses it to testify about a specific period of time and as means of analysis of the problems that worry him. But the human being, his subject of preference, never disappears from the images.

facebook – instagram – website

What made you choose photography as a job ?

The fact I have chosen photography was a consequence of my education. I grew up in a context with many kids in the neighborhood. We played and hung together nearly every free minute. When I was eight years old, I joined the boy scouts. During the following 13 years, I learned to appreciate the beauty of daily life. At the same time, I had to accept that we are all different, and that this is how the world is made. Also I don’t like injustice. All this I can express in my pictures today.

 

 

What were the main milestones of your journey into photography (schools, workshops, experiences…) ?

When I was 18, I traveled to Haiti in order to plant some trees in a region four hours away from Port-au- Prince. With a borrowed camera, a 50 mm lens and less than ten films in my pocket, I documented everything I found interesting. Taking pictures while I was discovering a world which was perfectly unknown to myself, was the most exciting thing I had ever experienced. At that moment, I knew that I wanted to be a photographer.

 

What photographers – past and/or present – do you admire or do influence your approach in some manner ?

As a photographer, it seems very important to me to have a great knowledge of art history and the history of photography. One led to the other. Early documentary photographers in the nineteenth century like Timothy O’Sullivan in the U.S. or Charles Marville and Eugène Atget in Paris were preceding a Walker Evans who was the spiritual father of Robert Frank and Lee Friedlander and so on. In contemporary photography, I like very much the work of Alec Soth. He shows us the world in his own poetical way. His pictures seem timeless.

 

What is the main purpose of taking pictures for you (apart from earning a living) ?

It is my way to express myself. I use photography instead of writing.

 

What specific domain in photography is of particular interest to you (portrait, reportage, street, conceptual…) ?

I don’t like categorization. My recent work (which will be shown next year) on the influence of nationalist and even fascist politics in the Hungarian landscape is composed of architecture, landscape, street and portrait photography. The whole sequence together can be seen as a conceptual work. Of course I use the only language of documentary photography but I don’t want to limit myself while I am working. Working as a photographer has to remain a pleasure.

 

Do you have a definition of what street photography should be ?

No, except that there is a photographer who shoots pictures in public areas, mostly urban. But! It is significant that a photographer admits his huge responsibility towards his subjects. We can hurt people if we show inadequate pictures. In countries with illiberal governments we can even put people’s lives in danger. A photographer must understand that today nearly every person on earth has access to internet.

 

In the streets/public spaces, what kind of situation catches your eye and makes you stop and shoot ?

Honestly, I don’t stop so often when I use my small format camera. I have probably a Winogrand kind of way to take my street pictures. Walking and snap-shooting. I try to capture the identity of a place and its people passing by. So it is difficult to say what makes me shoot. Sometimes it’s the light and sometimes it’s the contrast between the different people in front of me. I like to charge the pictures with some chaos.

 

Are you more like improvising in the flow of the city, or do you put yourself specific goals or missions ?

I plan and then I improvise. Which means that when I have a job it depends on the job description where I finally go and take my pictures. But once I have chosen the area, I improvise. Of course, I happen to unexpectedly take out my camera, just for a few minutes on my way home.

 

What is your connection with the people you photograph in the streets ? Do you look for getting in contact or do you just catch the passing silhouette ? Do you keep a distance to your subject ?

In the specific case of improvised street-photography, I am rarely in contact with the people. A situation often lasts less than a second. Impossible to ask the people’s permission before. It would also extremely falsify the picture. I realised that “stealing” a picture of people in the street is often more like a surprising act to them than an annoying one. But it’s still a risk that photographers have to take. Concerning the distance, Robert Capa said once : If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough.

 

How far can you impregnate your street photographs with social/political/philosophical issues ?

These three issues are the only reason why I take pictures in the street. For example, in Luxembourg-City I want to show the strong mixture and contrast of the population, which comes near to a social and political analysis of the urban landscape. In the city-center, we can find reflections of the world of finance, immigration, rich and poor people, the consequences of the former and recent politics and so on…

 

What is your favourite camera/lens for shooting in the streets ?

Since January 2016 it’s my Leica M (Type 262) and the 28 mm I have. I must say that I only have two lenses but the other one is a 75 mm which puts me much too far away from my subjects. In fact, I use the Leica for everything else since I have it. I rather prefer to move than to zoom. Before I used a 24 mm for a long time and I loved it too. But I think it doesn’t matter which camera or lens one has. You should be happy with it.

 

What are your favourite cities ? And why ?

Tangier, Madrid, Brussels and Paris, but even Budapest are cities I like a lot. Southern cities because of its special light and the others because of the mixed population and its chaotic architecture. Finally the city doesn’t really matter to me.

 

What is your feeling concerning street photography in Luxembourg (Luxembourg City or other places in the Grand-Duchy) ? Do you have any kind of favourite spots ?

“Luxembourg City is still a small paradise for street photographers.”

Luxembourg City is still a small paradise for street photographers. People might request you to remove the picture afterwards or they want an explanation why you made the shot and for what purpose you intend to use it. My favourite spots are definitely the city station, Hamilius and Royal – but also in front of Auchan at the bus stop. The mixture of a frequently changing landscape with hasting people inspires me a lot.

 

Do you think a photographer is entitled to photograph anything in the streets ?  What do you think should be his/her boundaries ?

“The most important for me is the respect we owe to our subjects. I do it while I am editing my pictures.”

The city is like a huge theater whose actors are sometimes running out of control. It is the photographers’ job to achieve some order into the chaos if he wants his pictures to be readable. A street photographer doesn’t need to put a limit to what situations he should take or not. The most important for me is the respect we owe to our subjects. I do it while I am editing my pictures.

 

In what form do you exhibit your « street » photos ?

Today, everybody has something to say and wants to share it as soon as possible with the community. The easiest way to do this goes through the social medias. Sure I’m also posting pictures on Facebook or Instagram. This is my way to tell the world “Hey it’s me, I am still there”. But before I release a finished work, I like to take a lot of time to be sure that this is really what I want to show/say. While I was working for “d’Lëtzebuerger Land”, the newspaper was my favorite form. It’s slower than the social medias but still fast. Now I like to transform the pictures into objects as well. So I have to print and to frame them. It’s expensive and needs to be thought a lot.

 

What do you think about the current state of photography and the fact that it has become probably the most popular artistic practice ?

Photography is just a mechanical tool. It all depends on the meaning of the picture and what you finally do with it. A photograph can be powerful or without sense. There are more people owning a pen than a camera, but not everybody writes poems and novels despite the fact that we all know how to write. On the one hand, the digital democratization of photography and also the photographic digital picture give us the possibility to watch/scrutinize the whole world from our desktop. On the other hand, are we really able to understand what happens in the world ?

I think that we still need a better education to understand the

meaning behind the pictures and the difference between them.

I think that we still need a better education to understand the meaning behind the pictures and the difference between them. The kids today should learn (at school) how to read a picture. Many of them are not able to make the difference between a selfie and a portrait. I believe that only when we are able to analyse a situation, we can do or choose the right picture. Otherwise they are only pictures – the same way a word can just be a group of letters.

facebook
instagram
website

LSPF 2017 – Slide Shows

In case you missed the LSPF and our slide night! Here are our slideshows!

Slide Night 2017 from Paul Bintner on Vimeo.

Dirk Mevis SPLux slidenight 2017 from El Dirko Meviso on Vimeo.

these moments… – Slidenight 2017 April – Giulia Thinnes from Giulia Thinnes on Vimeo.

The Old City, Jerusalem from remera on Vimeo.

DavidPhillipsSlidenight2017 from david phillips on Vimeo.

Mäi Lëtzebuerg | Streetphotography from Vääro Nick on Vimeo.

Asphalt Blues from paulo lobo on Vimeo.

Slidenight 2017 LSPF Catalin Burlacu www.ishootcolors.com from ishootcolors.com on Vimeo.

SPLux Slide Night 2017 – Luxembourg Street Photography Festival – EMOP from Christophe Van Biesen on Vimeo.

Slidenight 2017 from Tom Weis on Vimeo.

Leit an der Stad – Luxembourg Street Photography 1950 – 2017

The exhibition features inhabitants of the city of Luxembourg in daily life situations. The works of great Luxembourgish photographers – in particular Batty Fischer, Marcel Schroeder, Tony Krier and Pol Aschman – show snapshots of Luxembourgers everyday life and give the visitor the opportunity to take a walk through the history of the city, just like the stroller in the image. By looking at the photographs dating back to the 1950s to the present day, visitors witness the dynamism of the city of Luxembourg and its urban development. Moreover, a selection of examples makes it possible to understand the tricks and techniques used for such photographs and to travel through more than 60 years of Luxembourg photography history.

 

 

We are very proud to announce that the collective will be featured in this exhibition with a couple of pictures! Beside the exhibition we are pleased to announce that we will offer street photography workshops as well as guided tours in the “cultural program” of Lëtzebuerg City Museum.

The exhibition will be open to the public from 06/10/2017 until 31/03/2019.

All dates for workshops and guided tours will be announced on our website. To be sure not to miss any announcements subscribe to our newsletter and be the first to be informed!

Slide Night 2017

https://www.facebook.com/events/370610276628297/

Fancy an evening loaded with Street Photography? It is happening again! On the 21st of April, up to 12 photographers of Street Photography Luxembourg (SPLux) show their latest artworks in a 5 minute slideshow featuring individual background music. This makes each slideshow a unique experience.

After 5 years our Slide Night is for the first time part of the European Month of Photography (EMoP). To highlight this special occasion, Street Photography Luxembourg invited 4 outstanding artists to join us at the Slide Night 2017.

Joining us:

1) Véronique Kolber

After she graduated with distinction from the prestigious school of photography Le 75 in Brussels, Véronique continued her studies in Fine Arts at the University of Strasbourg, where she accomplished a Masters degree. Thereafter Véronique was unstoppable, she exhibited her works in Europe, the United States, India and China. Take a look at the impressive list of exhibitions and publications on her own homepage.

We are delighted to win this talented luxembourgish artist for this Slide Night.

 

2) Sven Becker

He currently lives and works in Luxembourg. After his studies in visual communication in Brussels and Cologne, he initiated several projects around sustainable living in everyday life, launching exhibitions and a magazine amongst others. Feeling at ease in the uprising artistic and cultural scene, Sven has been photographing local and international acts on many stages throughout Luxembourg. He has been the visual storyteller behind the photographs of several communication campaigns of cultural institutions, festivals and artistic projects. In 2014, he had the opportunity to collaborate with Luxembourgish artist Filip Markiewicz on an audio-visual work for the exhibition Paradiso Lussemburgo presented at the Luxembourgish pavilion at Venice Biennale. Since 2013, he has been working as an independent fulltime photographer, working mainly for local press and magazines such as Lëtzebuerger Land, Paperjam, Delano, City Mag and being commissioned by Nido (Stern) or Les jours. 2013 marks as well the starting point of a series of independent travels to countries and cities such as Istanbul, Turkey where he covered the Gezi Park occupation and protests, Myanmar and Japan in 2015, or Teheran, Iran in 2016. Becker has a strong sense for capturing the in-between moments that remain often unseen. Intrigued by the unfamiliar, and the functioning of other cultures, his work distinguishes itself by its human approach, and the telling of his subjects’ stories. His strong interest for socio-political themes and actions, social cohesion, as well as contemporary events, such as the recent arrival of refugees in Europe, has led him naturally to join the project I am not a refugee. He currently works as a photojournalist for Lëtzebuerger Land. We are pleased to welcome Sven back to the Slide Night after 3 years and we are looking forward to see how he is going to surprise us this time.

 

 

3) Nils Jorgensen

http://in-public.com/photographers/nils-jorgensen/
London-based photographer Nils Jorgensen has an instinct for finding low-key, easily overlooked beauty. He spots unlikely patterns and picks out exquisite collisions of line and form in the most ordinary places. He likes taking photographs with humour and enjoys the reaction from people when they see them. He gained his living as a news and celebrity photographer. In 2002, he joined the online street photographers’ collective In-Public and had his first exhibition. After that, many exhibitions followed, amongst others at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, the Photofusion photography center in London, the Museum of London, the London Festival of Photography and the London Street Photography Festival. Nils led street photography workshops at the Tate Modern in London and was published in the book ‘Street Photography Now’, Thames and Hudson. Since 2011, he works as a freelance photographer. We are honoured to have won Nils with a slideshow of his photographs at the Slide Night.

4) Kristin Van Den Eede

instagram.com/kristinvandeneede
As a street photographer living in Belgium, getting lost in the urban jungle is a true passion of Kristin, and she is either constantly taking pictures or thinking about taking them. Almost all her spare time is devoted to photography. Together with her partner in crime, fellow photographer Kristof Vande Velde, she’s roaming the streets looking for images that excite or move her in some way. She is usually drawn to emotionally evocative scenes, extraordinary lighting or striking contrasts. Kristin was, amongst others, finalist in the Belgium Street Photography Contest 2014/2015 and the Miami Street Photography Festival 2016. She was also featured in two issues of the International Street Photographer Magazine. To follow her work and have a further look at her contributions to street photography, have a look at her homepage or her Flickr account. We are delighted to have this new talent on board for our Slide Night.

 

Conference with Jean-Christophe Béchet

inscription ici

 

Né en 1964 à Marseille, Jean-Christophe Béchet vit et travaille depuis 1990 à Paris.
Il a auparavant suivi des études d’économie (Aix-en-Provence, 1982-1985), puis de photographie (Arles, 1985-1988) avant de séjourner et de voyager deux ans en Afrique de l’Ouest (1988-1990)
Mélant noir et blanc et couleur, argentique et numérique, 24×36 et moyen format, polaroids et « accidents » photographiques, Jean-Christophe Béchet cherche pour chaque projet le « bon outil » , celui qui lui permettra de faire dialoguer de façon pertinente une interprétation du réel et une matière photographique. Héritier de la « photo de rue », qu’elle soit américaine, française ou japonaise, il a choisi de ne pas abandonner le terrain du « document subjectif » , associant reportage et paysage, portrait et architecture. Se méfiant des séries fermées sur elles-mêmes, il cherche dans chaque projet à révéler une spécificité photographique. Son regard sur le monde se construit livre par livre, l’espace de la page imprimée étant son terrain d’expression « naturel ». La place de l’homme dans le paysage contemporain, urbain comme naturel, est au centre de ses préoccupations. Il poursuit en ce moment un travail sur les grands villes Européennes, Asiatiques et Américaines et développe en parallèle plusieurs séries sur les territoires de Haute Montagne.

Après des études à l’École nationale supérieure de la photographie d’Arles, il devient photographe en 1988.

Il a été, avec Sylvie Hughes, co-rédacteur en chef de Réponses Photo de 1983 à 2015.

Il intègre l’équipe rédactionnelle de Fisheye en 2016.

 

page internet de J-C Béchet

événement Facebook

inscription ici