Some fresh news … and a thought on the creative process

Hi there,

it’s been nearly 1 year since I have posted my last article here. During that period, lots of things happened in my life: I shot many weddings and commercials, I was the official photographer for a Mauritian movie (to be released later in 2014), I took my first holidays in 4 years, my friend Thomas and I launched a foundation called “Fondation Marengo” which aims at preserving the Mauritian heritage, and I started to write 2 books about Mauritius (to be released in 2015 and 2016).

With everything going at a fast pace, new projects, ideas and opportunities flowing in without pause, it has been a quite tough period for me, always being busy and overbooked. In the end, it’s the whole creative process which is suffering – creativity needs time, I need time to be creative, and I’m happy I have decided to take the necessary time to write my books. Photography is a singular art, where creativity meets commercial pressure at every steps, where digital technology means instantaneity, where speed prevails over quality. I feel it’s time for me to be back to basic, to photographic roots, to feel closer to my subjects, to take time to admire and appreciate the present moment – in other words, CARPE DIEM !, and this will be my tribute to an actor I liked very much, Robin Williams.

Retro colonial concept shoot

Despite it is not “fresh” news anymore since it happened in June 2012, I still wanted to share some images and thoughts here about my first conceptual fashion shoot.

The consultation I launched through a poll here on my blog gave birth to the definition of the selected theme: retro colonial. I discussed it with my wife and with a few friends (namely Julien and Jasbeer), and I finally decided to go for the “behind the scene” shoot of a movie on the colonial period. In every images of this concept, I had to integrate some anachronisms and some cinematographic elements (lights, clap, camera, film director on his chair …), as if it was a real movie. Obviously, I also shot some real “fashion” images and some portraits showing the great job of The House of Haute Couture Lionnet Fauzou, of the hairdresser Steeves Ramiah and the make-up artist Dominique Chan, and the great acting of my models. So this basically was my concept.

After having defined the concept and explained it to the fashion designers, I needed to clarify my thoughts about the “what will shoot exactly, what do I want to show in my images ?” It then became obvious to me that what I will show is the normal life of a normal colonial couple, in their wonderful house (Eureka in Moka). I started to picture in my mind the different scenes of life that I wanted to capture – the couple having a cup of tea inside, the couple reading books in the varangue, the couple walking in their park, the couple having a picnic in their garden, the couple playing badminton together, the couple having fun with arts (drawing, photographing), the couple dancing at twighlight  … It seemed to me that it would constitute a nice series of images, quite different the ones from the others.

So here they are … some of the images taken during this wonderful day:

After disclosing those images, I simply would like to emphasize some facts and figures on the preparation of such a photo shoot. It seems to me that people should know more on all the work that lies behind a photo shoot. And here, I’m only talking for my part, the photographer’s part – hence this doesn’t include the work of the fashion designers, who did a fantastic job on the dress and the male costume.

So for me, this shoot represented:

– 5 full days of preparations – defining the concept and the outfit, finding the right place, the right people and the appropriate accessories (3 days were spent only to do shopping to find the best accessories !)

– more than 100 phone calls

– more than 50 different people, shops, partners … contacted and met

– 4 hours of actual photo shooting

– 3 hours of hairdressing and make-up

– some Rs 22,000 spent out of my pocket (this obviously doesn’t include the cost for the outfit, which has been offered to me due to my honorable mention for the fashion photography contest !)

– more than 18 people present on the photo shoot

As you can see, it looks more like a real movie production than just a photo shoot ! 😉 But all the efforts we put in it were really worthy, we had a wonderful day and so much fun.

In the end, as you can imagine, I would not have been able to do all this without a lot of help. Here is a list of all the people I would like to thank: my wife Diane and my kids Chloé and Simon, for their support, help and patience; my parents-in-law for helping me find a lot of accessories; Anais and Véronique Lionnet, and Fabien Fauzou for having created such wonderful fashion outfits, just like in my dreams; Jasbeer Kootbally for her great ideas and for her beautiful drawings; Ali Ghanti, for being the best photo assistant; Karen Nicolini for having found the 2 perfect models for this shoot; Courtney Horn and Vincent Jolivet, THE 2 perfect models, who acted exactly how I wanted; Steeves Ramiah, the hairdresser, for having crafted an amazing hair cut on Courtney; Dominique Chan, MUA, for the stunning make-up on the models; Jacques De Marroussem, owner of the Eureka House, for having allowed me to have the shoot in his absolutely awesome colonial house; The Mauritius Film Development Corporation, recommended by my friend Gonzalo Fanny, for lending me all the cinema equipment. And I surely miss some other people (sorry in advance for that) …