Articles

Photographer Bert Stern helped define the visual language of postwar America, creating some of the era’s most iconic images. In this interview, filmmaker Shannah Laumeister looks back on the seven years she spent filming Bert Stern: Original Madman, and on the intimacy, trust and contradictions that…

With Les Zidiomatiks, Sylvain Granjon transforms familiar expressions into absurd, burlesque images made entirely by hand. Nearly ten years after the film was shot, he reflects on his relationship with language, humour and craftsmanship, in a practice where photography naturally extends his past as…

Tom Wood inspired filmmaker Emmanuel Bonn to turn to photography. In this interview, he tells us about discovering Wood’s work and about the five days they spent together, between the seaside resort of New Brighton and Wood’s home in Wales, exploring his photographs while delving into his record col…

In this interview, Thomas Devaux reflects on a practice that questions the boundary between reality and illusion. Starting from ordinary scenes, he constructs images in which light, reflection, and artifice shift our perception of everyday life, revealing a more symbolic, almost sacred dimension. **…

Sidony Cloud cuts, assembles, diverts, and reinvents images with a sharp sense of the offbeat. In her collages, bodies, faces, and photographic fragments come together to form narratives that are at once funny, strange, and sometimes irreverent. From Cunéguonde, the mischievous heroine born inside m…

Nearly thirty years after La rue zone interdite, Gilbert Duclos reflects on what continues to sustain his street photography practice. Between the freedom to photograph, the legal issues surrounding image rights in Quebec, an ethics of looking, and an enduring attachment to public space, he shares a…

As head of the Contemporary Photography Department at Instituto Moreira Salles in São Paulo, Thyago Nogueira curated a major retrospective devoted to Claudia Andujar and her commitment to the Yanomami people. Presented in several countries, the exhibition brought to international attention the still…

In this interview, filmmaker and exhibition curator Trisha Ziff revisits the extraordinary story of The Mexican Suitcase, a set of long-lost negatives from the Spanish Civil War once attributed solely to Robert Capa. Their rediscovery made it possible to restore authorship to three photographers : R…

The documentary By the Ways: A Journey with William Eggleston, directed by Vincent Gérard and Cédric Laty, opens with a strange solemnity. A baroque suite by Bach played on the harpsichord accompanies images of desolate landscapes in the southern United States,empty roads and abandoned buildings. On…

Filmmaker Vladimir Kabelik looks back on the 1989 documentary he dedicated to Canadian photojournalist Boris Spremo, a pioneer of modern press photography. In this conversation, he recalls their collaboration, Spremo’s relentless curiosity and humanism, and reflects on how photojournalism has change…

In this interview, Stockholm-based photographer and filmmaker Stefan Bladh discusses the making of his film Without Desire, No Image, his relationship with Anders Petersen, and the enduring power of the Swedish photographer’s work. *** Zoé Isle de Beauchaine: Could you introduce yourself and tell us…

In this insightful interview, Hans Hamid reflects on his encounter with the Kasbah and the importance of geography in the construction of memory. He emphasises the tangible creative process, whether through photography or embroidery, which is capable of representing the unknown, the stranger. *** Zo…

In this interview, Copenhagen-based filmmaker Nicolai af Rosenborg tells us how he was moved by his first contact with Hans Hamid's work, how this inspired him to make a film, and how he worked later with him in the Kasbah. *** Zoé Isle de Beauchaine: How did you meet Hans Hamid Rasmussen ? Nicolai…

What if one could capture the soul of a country in a single gaze? What if, through the simple act of pressing a shutter, one could preserve the beauty of ordinary lives?Gabor, the documentary by Joannie Lafrenière, is much more than a portrait of an artist. It is a film about memory, tenderness, the…

In this interview, American photographer Susan Meiselas talks about her collaboration with Marc Karlin on his flagship project in Nicaragua during the Sandinista revolution, and the ethical questions it raises about the profession of photojournalist. *** Zoé Isle de Beauchaine: How did you meet Marc…

Andy Robson, who co-founded the Marc Karlin Archives, talks to us about the importance of this little-known director's work, his radical vision of film and his committed life. He looks back on an edifying documentary project devoted as much to the Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua as to the ethics…

A tiny dog next to long legs. A man sitting with the head of a bulldog. There's nothing more serious than humour, and Elliott Erwitt understood this before anyone else. His photographs, often funny, sometimes poignant, always intelligent, tell simple, universal stories that seduce us, irresistibly.…

Between still and moving images, carnal desire and fear of death, beauty and ageing, W brings extremes into tension. Lorenzo Castore returns to a primitive vision of the world, making here a savage gesture at a time when he himself is about to be confronted with death. *** Caroline Henry: W is your…

Lorenzo Castore tells us about the unique experience of Sogno #5, a 3-day performance in the largest psychiatric hospital in southern Italy, then abandoned and forgotten. Using August Strindberg's A Dream Play as a pretext and the moving interpretation of a troupe of actors who were also psychiatric…

In 2009, Sol Miraglia met Luisa Escarria, the photographer at Foto Estudio Luisita. It was the start of a long friendship as well as a film adventure that would reveal this legendary Buenos Aires studio to the public. In this interview, the director takes us behind the scenes of her superb documenta…

Light is his brush. In this interview, photographer Michael Flomen talks to us about his practice, which draws on nature to constantly evolve and transform. *** Zoé Isle de Beauchaine: Michael Flomen, how did you come to this very particular approach?Michael Flomen: Around 1999, early summer I was s…

The photographic mission undertaken by the passionate Peter Willis reveals an incredible range of postboxes all over the UK. His absolutely unprecedented photographs bear witness to an evolution in the urban landscape as well as our uses. Andy Oxley, director of some astonishing portraits of collect…

In this interview, Brian Ross tells us about the birth of the documentary project on the work of Ian Berry and the difficulties that may have surrounded it. We discover a photographer at two speeds, whose work goes far beyond his testimony of the Sharpeville Massacre. *** Zoé Isle de Beauchaine: Cou…

Wolfgang Hastert's love of the image has led him to experiment with photography and video, whether through his documentaries or more experimental works. The German artist and director talks to us about his special relationship with the image - still or moving, his discovery of James Bidgood and how…

Italian photographer Nicolò Filippo Rosso talks to The Darkroom Rumour about his long-term project on migration across the American continent, as well as his vision of documentary photography, its commitments and the responsibility of the author. *** Zoé Isle de Beauchaine: How did you get into phot…

In this interview, José Muniain tells us more about PhotoDOC, a collaborative project he devised to bring together a photographer and a filmmaker through video. It's a short format that offers a new perspective on a particular photographic series. *** Zoé Isle de Beauchaine: What is photoDOC?Jose Mu…

Andy Dunn is a documentary filmmaker specializing in music. In this interview, he tells us about his side-step into photography, which enabled him to deliver an intimate portrait of the American photographer Harold Feinstein, revealing the richness of the work of this overlooked photographer, whose…

In an exchange with The Darkroom Rumour, filmmaker Nils Petter Löfstedt reveals part of the moving journey behind "The Celestial Darkroom".Through written answers to five questions, he shares the happy beginnings and emotional upheavals that shaped his cinematic tribute to Hermanson's legacy, as wel…

Everything in Thomas Goupille's film dedicated to Dolores Marat is a surface of softness and delicacy. But how else could one approach and capture this photographer of the subtle, the elusive, the delicate—of all these little things that make up our inner geography and open us to the beauty of the w…

In this intimate interview, Emmanuel Bacquet explores with Romy Alizée behind the scenes of her creative process, from the reappropriation of eroticism to the exploration of the self-portrait. Alizée shares her perspectives on art, representation and the power of images in the context of her own art…

Patrick Séraudie, a filmmaker specializing in history subjects, and the Second World War in particular, made the documentary “WR, A Day in Oradour” with Willy Ronis. A conversation about the photographer’s memories and the international history of the “Peace Movement”. Patrick Séraudie first met the…

Robert Frank made very few concessions; whether to success, to style, or to photography itself.But in the visual language he created from film and photo, in this form of poetic writing, made up of scraps and fragments, of fits of enthusiasm closely followed by despair, he built a singular work. His…

British film director Gerald Fox has produced many portraits of artists, photographers in particular. But Robert Frank, while being an artist who opens up about his own life through his work, was nonetheless a man of mystery, complicated, withdrawn from the world. Gerald Fox revisits the story of th…

Fototracce is the photographic association that is behind the production of the film African Photo : Mama Casset. Its members include its director, Elisa Mereghetti; and also Maddalena Cerletti, Melissa Nicolini and Giovanna Burinato. They answered our questions together ! *** Emmanuel Bacquet: How…

In this interview, Sara Imloul shares with Emmanuel Bacquet her creative journey since the Das Schloss series. Exploring metaphysical and ancestral themes, she invites us into her artistic process, where calotype and large format reveal a profound visual poetry, rooted in a timeless attachment to ph…

How to define what photography is, what distinguishes it from its elders, painting, engraving, drawing (to which it was for a long time subservient) or, if you'd rather, what constitutes this specific mode of representation? When Bettina Rheims began her career in the late 1970s, only a small number…

Bettina Rheims talks to Emmanuel Bacquet about her inspirations, her creative process and her artistic evolution. Learn how her projects, from the Gender Studies series to portraits of incarcerated women, reflect a growing commitment and an ongoing quest to capture the essence of her subjects, trans…

Nathalie Masduraud and Valérie Urréa are documentary filmmakers. Beyond their personal films (on autism and dance, among others, for Valérie, and on the occupation and the French colonies for Nathalie), they join forces to produce many societal and historical documentaries.They have thus worked in p…

Emmanuel Bacquet opens the doors to the fascinating world of Nicolas Becker, an artist whose mastery of sound has left its mark on many famous films. Discover how he creates soundscapes that transform our cinematic experience. *** Emmanuel Bacquet: Nicolas Becker, you are an internationally recognis…

Violence is an infinitely diverse phenomenon in terms of its sectors, its actors, its victims, its forms, its practices and its intensities. Not all violence is the same. It can be private, public, and even legal (if not legitimate), like police violence. Police Violence Police violence, when practi…

The work of Saul Leiter was rediscovered, with his street photographs brought to light in the 1990s.His photos of New York (from as early as 1948) earned him a significant reputation in the latter years of his life, especially for his use of colour. Yet in the film devoted to him by Tomas Leach, he…

For DK2R, British director Tomas Leach revisits his film "In No Great Hurry" on Saul Leiter. With great sincerity, he confirms what is felt in the film: the meeting with Saul Leiter was more intense and profound than anything he expected when he began the project.It is sometimes difficult to grasp t…

As well as working as a costume designer for the cinema and theatre, Rosalie Varda runs Agnès Varda’s family production company, Ciné-Tamaris, based in Rue Daguerre in Paris.A street named after the great photographer. One of the small details and coincidences Agnès Varda loved to highlight and give…

Kimmo Koskela is a director, visual artist and producer. His films blur the borders between documentary and film d’artiste, and demonstrate a very personal world. None of which rules out encounters: The film Still Not There, with Arno Rafael Minkkinen, attests to great creative complicity. Complicit…

He is a major photographic artist, exhibited internationally many times, collected by the greatest museums. Arno Rafael Minkkinen bares his world for DK2R in an exceptional first interview, a mix of aesthetic musings and personal reflections. All adorned with what Michel Tournier called a "ripple" o…

Jane Evelyn Atwood is an independent woman and photographer whose freedom has been forged both through her experiences and the struggles she wages in life to protect her creative space. But this freedom is tenuous. It must be regained with each act, each decision, each gesture and it requires unfail…

From the film's opening frames, Thomas Goupille plunges us into another world and another time: the workshop of the famous Fresson dynasty, master printers of photographs since 1899. The enlarger and the wooden frames from the nineteenth century, the Roberval balance, now only found at antique deale…

The director Mathieu Le Lay revisits his work for us. We find out to what extent his film on the work of Alexandre Deschaumes stems from a commitment to (and humility before) nature that he shares with the photographer. *** EB: How did this film project come about? How did you meet Alexandre Deschau…

He's not keen on legends under photographs, pregnant with meaning. Nor is he keen on the "legendary photographer" tag. "Plo" doesn't stand on ceremony. He doesn't need to. He avoids interviews, because what matters is in his photos, and talking about the rest is of secondary importance. "Photography…

Bernard Plossu isn't usually very forthcoming. Each word reveals the coherence of a reasoned worldview, studded with aesthetic references. DK2R had the opportunity to ask him about printing, and his answers extend this central subject of the photographic act. *** Emmanuel Bacquet: Bernard Plossu, wh…

In general, things start in a room. This is certainly true of the birth of photography. When Nicephore Niepce made his first attempts to capture an image, revealing to the world the famous view "from my window", the light must have crossed the room then the camera obscura. As early as 1853, in Franc…

Dominique Roland, auteur of the film The Legs of the Saint-Pierre Quarter, has directed an original and erudite film about the work of the artist Pierre Molinier. It comes as no surprise from this enthusiast, who is also director of the Enghien-les-Bains Arts Centre. In this interview, he explains t…