The Drowsy Chaperone

Limbo

Welcome to the Machine

Sandman
 

• Gold Medal (category "EXPERIMENTAL PHOTOGRAPHY") for "Duality"
• Gold Medal (category "SELF PORTRAIT") for "Conscience"

DualityWho are we? Do we always have to fit into categories? Are things that polarized?
Society is starting to (very, very slowly) recognize the existence of a spectrum between femininity and masculinity, and the fact they are not necessarily exclusive, when it comes to identity. I like the idea that each one of us is not limited to some stereotype, but rather a complex recipe of various feelings and sensitivity.
After all, while a quick medical exam can put me in the "male" category, would it be that clear if the exam took place through a written chat, simply based on my wording or communication style? I don't believe that some psychological traits are reserved to women, or some other to men. There are probably statistics about each of them, tendencies, but it would be hard to measure societal influence, and distinguish the intrinsic individual anyway.
This picture is the result of a project started about 3 months ago: two comedians, Muriel and John, asked me to create their upcoming theater show poster. The show depicts the influence of women in men's life, and vice-versa. While thinking about their play, and also about all these gender related complex problems, I imagined this mask, composed of bodies, with women on one side and men on the other, while the face would be split in the opposite way. They liked the concept and bravely accepted to pose for it. Things mostly worked as expected, and I am very happy with the result: balancing colors and lights can be a bit tricky when compositing a lot of photos together. We all hope you like it! Conscience  

The Trierenberg Super Circuit international contest is one of the biggest photo contest in the world, with about 80.000 entries each year. In addition of these 2 images, a whole bunch of other of my creations will be part of the 2021 Trierenberg Book (no exhibition this year unfortunately, due to the COVID situation):

• Happy Birthday
• The Waste Land
• Circumference
• Justice at Stake
• Urinetown
• Jazz
• Litterae
• Narcissism
• Family Stories
• Northern Dreams
   

Happy Birthday The Waste Land Circumference Justice at Stake

Urinetown Jazz Litterae Narcissism

Family Stories Northern Dreams

I am very proud and happy about this result!

Here is an example, called "Prometheus and the Making of Man":
"At the bidding of Jupiter, Prometheus set about the creation of Man and the other animals. Jupiter, seeing that Mankind, the only rational creatures, were far outnumbered by the irrational beasts, bade him redress the balance by turning some of the latter into men. Prometheus did as he was bidden, and this is the reason why some people have the forms of men but the souls of beasts."

I suppose this was a way to point out ugliness in some individuals behaviour. Sure, some people out there are brutal, violent, compassionless, rude, you-name-it. Still, comparing them to animals is unfair. Many animals have subtle feelings. A few days ago, my wife saw a dead magpie in the middle of the road. While there clearly was no hope for anything, given the appearance of the poor thing, his companion kept coming back to the corpse, giving him a few peaks, then running away as another car was approaching. The sad bird kept doing that for a few hours at least. Even birds can love, can grieve.
From there, while I disagree with Aesop's fable meaning (or what I understood from it), I thought it would be funny to create an image depicting him, looking at the disaster he created. I decided that all humans should wear an animal mask: I believe we all have such legacy in our veins. So I ordered all these masks, and my wife and I had great fun wearing those for some shooting sessions!

Thanks for watching!

Prometheus and the Making of Man

While the wheel is an ancient "invention", I like how this basic geometry shape embeds a notion of infinity: even if you know the diameter, you cannot express the exact length of the circumference with numbers (since it involves the constant Pi, which decimal representation never ends and never settles into a permanently repeating pattern). Simple at first glance, full of endless surprises in fact!

Circumference

Technically, I have seen similar creations by several artists. This is my attempt at it, using only my own photos, instead of a 3D software, or pencils. I had to attach a hook to my upper lip, to emulate the face deformation (which I erased in post, obviously), but it worked as expected. Thanks for watching. Hope you like it!

Conscience

This image is directly inspired by a drawing we saw on the Internet. Emilie loved it, and was willing to put enough work in the studio to pose despite the relative difficulty (considering she's 5). Of course, she also decided that the picture had to contain pink and purple (stereotypes, but well, what can a daddy do, right ;) ). All the photos are mine, taken from various places we visited in the past (mostly Canada for the mountains, and a frozen lake nearby our home).
We hope you like it!

Northern Dreams

The System

The Waste Land
 

This picture is the result of a project started about 3 months ago: two comedians, Muriel and John, asked me to create their upcoming theater show poster. The show depicts the influence of women in men's life, and vice-versa. While thinking about their play, and also about all these gender related complex problems, I imagined this mask, composed of bodies, with women on one side and men on the other, while the face would be split in the opposite way. They liked the concept and bravely accepted to pose for it. Things mostly worked as expected, and I am very happy with the result: balancing colors and lights can be a bit tricky when compositing a lot of photos together. We all hope you like it!

DualityWho are we? Do we always have to fit into categories? Are things that polarized?
Society is starting to (very, very slowly) recognize the existence of a spectrum between femininity and masculinity, and the fact they are not necessarily exclusive, when it comes to identity. I like the idea that each one of us is not limited to some stereotype, but rather a complex recipe of various feelings and sensitivity.
After all, while a quick medical exam can put me in the "male" category, would it be that clear if the exam took place through a written chat, simply based on my wording or communication style? I don't believe that some psychological traits are reserved to women, or some other to men. There are probably statistics about each of them, tendencies, but it would be hard to measure societal influence, and distinguish the intrinsic individual anyway.
This picture is the result of a project started about 3 months ago: two comedians, Muriel and John, asked me to create their upcoming theater show poster. The show depicts the influence of women in men's life, and vice-versa. While thinking about their play, and also about all these gender related complex problems, I imagined this mask, composed of bodies, with women on one side and men on the other, while the face would be split in the opposite way. They liked the concept and bravely accepted to pose for it. Things mostly worked as expected, and I am very happy with the result: balancing colors and lights can be a bit tricky when compositing a lot of photos together. We all hope you like it!

Sometimes, it becomes an obsession. A priority. No drawback seem negative enough to stop entertainment attraction. On this "Alice in Wonderland" loosely inspired image, I tried to depict a character who is so in love with these orange pills, that she completely forgets those are actually killing her, as they are directly made out of her body chunks.

While this is quite extreme, there are similar examples in real life as well. Some drink, or smoke, despite the well known health consequences. Some do drugs, even if the short term effects will disappear in favor of big problems. Some drive fast, voluntarily forgetting they might kill someone (or themselves). Some cheat on their partner, for an ephemeral thrill, temporarily ignoring the sorrow that may be created. Examples are quite easy to find. Why is that? Why do we so easily forget consequences, and keep having fun whatsoever? Is it something written in our genes? Why does our body favor this, by releasing endorphins or adrenaline in such situation, blinding us? Are we that easy to fool?

I obviously have no definite answer about that. I suppose part of it lies in the fact we are a social species, as entertainment create links between individuals. A group being stronger than a single person, from a biological point of view, evolution may have favored such behavior. In that case, it would mean that despite impacting individual health, excessive/dangerous entertainment is still a valid option to make the pack stronger. Hum. Or maybe am I just writing nonsensical stuff... I'd better get out, and see what good movie's available tonight!

Wonderland?

Family Stories

Happy Birthday

Urinetown

The Chocolate Princess

Litterae

Holy Grail found on Mars!

Memories

Spamalot

It is a fantastic honor, thank you all.

The Great Covfefe

The Great Covfefe

As usual, everything photographed and edited by me, no stock.

My dear friend Gabriel O' Shaughnessy is one of their incredible members, and kindly invited me there this year.
I had the privilege to perform a 2h long talk there, explaining my work, showing examples and behind the scenes: the reception was just fantastic! I can't say how delighted I am, these extremely talented photographers were open minded, and made me really feel very welcome here. I had a blast!
The next day, I spent a few hours reviewing all the entries of their 2017 annual exhibition, and shall I say: wow! So many great pictures, it was very hard to choose winners. The ceremony that occurred in the evening was also very successful, and I was fortunate enough to shake the hands of all these incredible photographers!

The next day, Gabriel and Damien O' Malley (Chairman of the Dundalk Photographic Society) also took me out for some ride through Ireland: look at me enjoying every seconds of it :-) Thank you so much guys, and I hope we can meet again soon enough!

Additionally, many of my pictures have been accepted into the official 2017 catalog, which makes me happy and proud being there in such good company!

Mother LoveNo stock, everything photographed and edited by me.
Imagining what life could be like elsewhere in the universe is an essential question to me. When I was a child, it really was something that kept me awake at night. I remember lying in my bed, in the dark, closing my eyes as firmly as I could, staring at the psychedelic colors that one can spot in such situation, pretending these were the stars that other lifeforms could see in their own skies.
Human beings are mostly frightening. No need to be specific here, just look at the news. What if beings from other planets would arrive tomorrow? What would they think of us? Would they agree with the arbitrary choices that we have made long ago, that are almost never questioned down there? For example, they would discover that humans have drawn imaginary lines, in order to split the planet in what is called 'countries', then fight each other, because some inhabitants are jealous about what others have on 'their' parts. They would see that some have easy access to food and water, while others are starving to death. Even inside a given country, they would see that some have access to knowledge and education, while others can't read nor count. Inequality and intolerance is everywhere. I would love to see aliens from outer space come and visit us: maybe their external opinion would make us think a bit about this shameful show we are currently giving to the cosmos.
But how could they actually look like? It is of course very hard to tell. Scientists would probably try to guess according to their living environment (for example, gravitation level, components in their atmosphere, etc.) but evolved beings could have negated these effects with their technology, so in the end, it is pretty much unpredictable. However, by definition, any life form is supposed to... live. This implies some kind of reproduction (or immortality, and even then, there is the problem of the first individuals). Of course, this reproduction does not necessarily involve a male and a female, many variations are possible (parthenogenesis, hermaphroditic reproduction, sexual reproduction with 2 or more individuals, or even other ways such as fully synthetic reproduction). Regardless of the way, the process probably establishes a relationship between the creator(s) and the created. Would the creator(s) be proud, happy? Would the created be thankful, or appreciative? Would some kind of love exist? Maybe naively, I tend to think so. This is what I wanted to depict here: in life, appearances may not be always up to our personal tastes, but positive and warm feelings still do exist.

Close Encounter of the Swimming Kind

 Special thanks for my wife and my coworkers (Clément, Yannick, Simon, Luc and Vincent) who posed for this image.

Sirens' Song

The Duel

Shadows are falling and I’ve been here all day
It’s too hot to sleep, time is running away
Feel like my soul has turned into steel
I’ve still got the scars that the sun didn’t heal
There’s not even room enough to be anywhere
It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there

Well, my sense of humanity has gone down the drain
Behind every beautiful thing there’s been some kind of pain
She wrote me a letter and she wrote it so kind
She put down in writing what was in her mind
I just don’t see why I should even care
It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there

Well, I’ve been to London and I’ve been to gay Paree
I’ve followed the river and I got to the sea
I’ve been down on the bottom of a world full of lies
I ain’t looking for nothing in anyone’s eyes
Sometimes my burden seems more than I can bear
It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there

I was born here and I’ll die here against my will
I know it looks like I’m moving, but I’m standing still
Every nerve in my body is so vacant and numb
I can’t even remember what it was I came here to get away from
Don’t even hear a murmur of a prayer
It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there

Not Dark Yet

I often wonder if things could be organized differently, not just locally, but on a global scale. Have you ever heard of eusociality? This word defines advanced society organization in animal life. For example, bees are organized in a way that individual interest is totally erased by community interest: even the queen itself, although unique in a hive, doesn't have much to enjoy from a personal point of view, since she is totally dedicated to reproduction and can't even feed herself.

Of course, imagining a new organization would imply defining a given goal. What priority should we choose? What long-term purpose could we aim at? Are we only supposed to live as comfortably as possible, reproduce ourselves, then die, without any other precise objective? As far as I'm concerned, I would love some focus on fundamental research: how the universe got created, what are his laws, and ultimately, what purpose serves our presence in there (if any). Obviously, other persons may have other various opinions on such topic. What would be yours?

In any case, I am quite convinced that some more solidarity could go a long way. People being lucky enough to live in the higher steps of the social pyramid (I include myself in here) may give some more consideration to others that are in need of help. Even from a purely ethnocentric point of view, whatever the awaiting challenges are, human beings can only be stronger as a whole if solidarity becomes the rule.

City Shadows

Once upon a shoe

France, 14th of July 2016. The country is celebrating its National Day. As every year, spectacular fireworks are displayed in almost each city, attracting lots of people, families, children. It is one of these occasions where joy can temporarily make sadness disappear. Alas, not this day. In the city of Nice (located in the south of France, next to the sea), a few minutes after the fireworks, a man managed to drive with a cargo truck through the crowd, killing 85, and injuring hundreds. Among the dead persons, mothers, fathers, even children, who were unfortunately on the path of the truck.

I don't feel like commenting on the geopolitical nor religious situation that led there. I am too sad to think or analyze. For now, I'd rather stick to some of the stories the survivors told. For example, a mother and her 4 years old daughter were in line to buy candies, when the truck arrived on them. The woman saw the truck a couple of seconds before the impact, and immediately understood what was going on. She managed to grab her girl, and lie with her on the ground, just between the wheels of the truck, letting it pass above them. Miraculously, they both made it. Of course, the little girl and her mother witnessed lots of horror this night. A few days later, back on the street where it all happened, the girl asked:"Mummy, where do the dead children go?" She wanted to leave her very favorite toy on the ground, as a gift for them. The mother answered: "Don't worry, they are with their parents in the heaven". Then, the girl took her toy back and said: "We, for ones, are not dead. Do you remember when you put me back on your belly as when I was a baby, to save me from the bad truck who stole my candies?"

The sea portion just next to this street is called "Angels Bay", "La Baie des Anges".

La Baie des Anges

Sometimes, unexpected challenges arise. I love trying to predict what could happen from there, or what could have happened "if". Do you? It is a little mind sport that I can't prevent myself from practicing. For example, I can spend significant time thinking about one of my reactions in a given situation, then imagining the other possible outcomes depending on various behavior. Of course, one could say that such thoughts are useless, since the action is past. True, in a way. However, I do know that it actually helped me: in life, many scenes are repeating themselves, and having studied all the possibilities on a similar case permits me acting more appropriately on-the-fly. Experience, I suppose.

Speaking of flies, this is quite a big one. This is where my thinking gets a bit less useful in everyday life: I also can't prevent myself from elaborating scenarios that are wildly unrealistic. It's fun, it makes me smile, so why not? A few days ago, I was walking in the woods, while I heard some shots in the wind: hunters. It really is hard to love these guys. Seriously, running after some defenseless animal with dogs and riffles? For entertainment? What wrong is with them? It would be amusing to see them facing some real opponent. For example, a giant deer, or a giant boar. They would be quite surprised, wouldn't they? Would they still face it, even if the odds suddenly were against them? I doubt it!

Similarly, I always feel bad when I see someone coldly killing a bug. I believe that such behavior is a bit like what those silly hunters do: killing for your own comfort, allowing it simply because there is no risk doing so. What about life respect? Even if one is actually bigger and stronger, does it justify death? Some say that in nature, it is how things work: the strong lives, the weak dies. Well, if human beings are really that smart, maybe it is time to evolve from this ancestral rule.

A few technical notes about the fly shot: I found the insect in the basement of my house. It was already dead. I photographed it using focus stacking: 22 shots were necessary, at f/16 with the fantastic MP-E 65mm lens. Thanks for watching!

The Duel

I deeply hate silence. If you remain silent while in trouble, there won't be any help. If you remain silent while lying on the street, you will be ignored. If you remain silent instead of sharing your thoughts, you will stay alone. If you remain silent, others will decide for you. If you remain silent while your peers are decimated, you will disappear with them. I deeply hate silence.

Time for bed.

The Sea Shepherd

I am not sure where this fear of others came from. Retrospectively, I suppose that I was seriously lacking in the self-confidence department. For some reason, I wasn't very fond of myself: I was convinced that my body was awkward, that my movements were unnatural, that my thoughts were unusual. As a result, I spent years being jealous of the popular kids, secretly looking at them with envy, wondering what I could do to become like them. Slowly, I understood that I first had to believe more in my own potential.

However, while some amount of self-confidence seems suitable, when does it become narcissism? What is the point to constantly feel superior, to constantly love yourself, without any objectivity? It is probably a great way to never improve nor evolve. If one turns the TV on, or reads some news, it is easy to spot dozen of self-proclaimed celebrities, who keep staring at their own belly, certain that they are so interesting for the rest of the world. Even when looking around you, I am sure you can think of someone acting a bit like that, living only for recognition. It is a bit sad really, but I suppose it is directly resulting of how our capitalistic society works. Individual performance is often praised. I hope this trap won't get Humanity stuck in a vicious circle.

Finally, I would like to thank my stepmother for her help: we were chatting about this topic and how to depict it, when she told me about multiple mirrors and infinite reflections. This greatly helped me come up with this concept.

Narcissism

Family

This pressure is a nightmare. It destroys, by averaging things. It is so hard to resist to. Fortunately, some inspiring artists are leading the way. David Bowie was a fantastic example of such integrity: always seeking, always experimenting, always innovating, regardless of the critics. Thank you so much Mr Bowie. You will be greatly missed.

Space Oddity

I didn't really buy that explanation, and as I grew up, I gathered more information from other sources. I soon realized that people had various reactions about death. Some were answering with religion, telling about another life after death, supposedly wonderful. Loads of persons also didn't know what to answer, and seemed to live pretending that death didn't exist at all. Then, others simply explained that in doubt, life should be enjoyed as much as possible. Carpe Diem.

Within that last category, there are of course various ways of taking advantage of life. This is personally where I have difficulties: what risk to take, in the name of living a worthy life, and what risk not to take, in order to avoid shortening it too much? Is asking that question already a sign of weakness? Should I always do whatever comes to mind regardless of the potential consequences? Or as a contrary, should I simply spend the next day working, cooking, and keeping the house warm for my family? This is a great dilemma. Usually, I like spending lots of time thinking about a situation, measuring pros and cons, but of course, here time is not on my side. Not on our side, sadly. Or is it?

The Passage

However, why do so many politicians accept presents from private companies? Aren't they supposed to work in their country's interest, and nothing else? Why do so many doctors accept gifts from pharmaceutical industry? Aren't they supposed to give the best medication depending on the pathology, not on the brand? Why are some judges elected by popular vote, aren't they supposed to be fair, instead of seeking voices?

As an individual, it is of course impossible to remain fully intellectually independent. However, as a society, we definitely must make sure that justice is protected from corruption and external control. Without it, I really can't see how rights of individuals would be guaranteed in any way.

Justice at Stake

Thanks a lot to all my coworkers who accepted to pose for this redux of the famous Gericault's painting, The Raft of the Medusa:
- Celine, the witch
- Thierry, the vampire
- Olivier, the zombie with an axe in the head
- Martin, the mage
- Aurelie, the corpse bride
- Clement, the vampire
- Yannick, Jack'O + the demon
- Simon, the Frankenstein creature
- Maxime, the fluffy thing

Last but not least, special thanks to my wife who helped me pose for all the other characters, and construct the raft in our garden!

The Raft of Halloween

Happy BirthdayToday is my daughter's first birthday. It's been a wonderful year. Happy Birthday Emilie!
(As usual, I photographed and edited everything myself, no stock.)

I can't help imagining all the various men I could have been, "if". It is not a matter of regrets, I am becoming too old for these, but rather plain curiosity. Could have I been a great sportsman, if I had chosen to join this athletics club? Would have I become a novel writer, if I had held to my pen instead of running after girls? Would I be a lab scientist if I had studied more and partied less? It is funny, how better versions of myself come to mind first. There are also so many negative possibilities, so many sad paths that could have been mine. Would I be in a wheeling chair, if that car hadn't stopped when I crossed that road at 6 years old? Would I be obese if my mum had not said to be ashamed of my weight 20 years ago? Would I be unemployed if my first boss had not given me a chance in the first place? I'm sure you can remember about a detail of your past, that completely changed the person you became, can't you?

One could say that it is useless to think about these hypothesis, since there is no way to find out the actual answers. Still, it helps me measuring how important are all the small things of life, how they add up, how they do matter. I find these questions to be like coffee for the mind, forcing it to be awake and not letting it overlook too many things.

Growing up is made of small thingsNo stock, everything photographed and edited by me.
Yesterday, I was waving at my 11 months old daughter, Emilie, to grab her attention. Today, she is waving back at me with her little hand. It may sound obvious, but each experience, even the smallest one, is definitely making us one step closer to our future self.
I can't help imagining all the various men I could have been, "if". It is not a matter of regrets, I am becoming too old for these, but rather plain curiosity. Could have I been a great sportsman, if I had chosen to join this athletics club? Would have I become a novel writer, if I had held to my pen instead of running after girls? Would I be a lab scientist if I had studied more and partied less? It is funny, how better versions of myself come to mind first. There are also so many negative possibilities, so many sad paths that could have been mine. Would I be in a wheeling chair, if that car hadn't stopped when I crossed that road at 6 years old? Would I be obese if my mum had not said to be ashamed of my weight 20 years ago? Would I be unemployed if my first boss had not given me a chance in the first place? I'm sure you can remember about a detail of your past, that completely changed the person you became, can't you?
One could say that it is useless to think about these hypothesis, since there is no way to find out the actual answers. Still, it helps me measuring how important are all the small things of life, how they add up, how they do matter. I find these questions to be like coffee for the mind, forcing it to be awake and not letting it overlook too many things.

Human beings are mostly frightening. No need to be specific here, just look at the news. What if beings from other planets would arrive tomorrow? What would they think of us? Would they agree with the arbitrary choices that we have made long ago, that are almost never questioned down there? For example, they would discover that humans have drawn imaginary lines, in order to split the planet in what is called 'countries', then fight each other, because some inhabitants are jealous about what others have on 'their' parts. They would see that some have easy access to food and water, while others are starving to death. Even inside a given country, they would see that some have access to knowledge and education, while others can't read nor count. Inequality and intolerance is everywhere. I would love to see aliens from outer space come and visit us: maybe their external opinion would make us think a bit about this shameful show we are currently giving to the cosmos.

But how could they actually look like? It is of course very hard to tell. Scientists would probably try to guess according to their living environment (for example, gravitation level, components in their atmosphere, etc.) but evolved beings could have negated these effects with their technology, so in the end, it is pretty much unpredictable. However, by definition, any life form is supposed to... live. This implies some kind of reproduction (or immortality, and even then, there is the problem of the first individuals). Of course, this reproduction does not necessarily involve a male and a female, many variations are possible (parthenogenesis, hermaphroditic reproduction, sexual reproduction with 2 or more individuals, or even other ways such as fully synthetic reproduction). Regardless of the way, the process probably establishes a relationship between the creator(s) and the created. Would the creator(s) be proud, happy? Would the created be thankful, or appreciative? Would some kind of love exist? Maybe naively, I tend to think so. This is what I wanted to depict here: in life, appearances may not be always up to our personal tastes, but positive and warm feelings still do exist.

Mother LoveNo stock, everything photographed and edited by me.
Imagining what life could be like elsewhere in the universe is an essential question to me. When I was a child, it really was something that kept me awake at night. I remember lying in my bed, in the dark, closing my eyes as firmly as I could, staring at the psychedelic colors that one can spot in such situation, pretending these were the stars that other lifeforms could see in their own skies.
Human beings are mostly frightening. No need to be specific here, just look at the news. What if beings from other planets would arrive tomorrow? What would they think of us? Would they agree with the arbitrary choices that we have made long ago, that are almost never questioned down there? For example, they would discover that humans have drawn imaginary lines, in order to split the planet in what is called 'countries', then fight each other, because some inhabitants are jealous about what others have on 'their' parts. They would see that some have easy access to food and water, while others are starving to death. Even inside a given country, they would see that some have access to knowledge and education, while others can't read nor count. Inequality and intolerance is everywhere. I would love to see aliens from outer space come and visit us: maybe their external opinion would make us think a bit about this shameful show we are currently giving to the cosmos.
But how could they actually look like? It is of course very hard to tell. Scientists would probably try to guess according to their living environment (for example, gravitation level, components in their atmosphere, etc.) but evolved beings could have negated these effects with their technology, so in the end, it is pretty much unpredictable. However, by definition, any life form is supposed to... live. This implies some kind of reproduction (or immortality, and even then, there is the problem of the first individuals). Of course, this reproduction does not necessarily involve a male and a female, many variations are possible (parthenogenesis, hermaphroditic reproduction, sexual reproduction with 2 or more individuals, or even other ways such as fully synthetic reproduction). Regardless of the way, the process probably establishes a relationship between the creator(s) and the created. Would the creator(s) be proud, happy? Would the created be thankful, or appreciative? Would some kind of love exist? Maybe naively, I tend to think so. This is what I wanted to depict here: in life, appearances may not be always up to our personal tastes, but positive and warm feelings still do exist.

BluesEverything photographed and edited by me.
Learning can be a painful process, especially at the beginning. Usually, the first steps in a new field are clumsy, require lots of focus, and still produce embarrassing results. At this point, it is obviously very easy to get discouraged and just give up. The temptation is so strong that such reaction is extremely common: it is not rare to see grown up kids still unable to read, write or count properly, unfortunately. Helping and supporting a new learner is important if you want him to succeed. Of course, once a certain level of skill has been reached, pain progressively becomes pleasure. Getting there completely changes the game: suddenly you are able to live incredible adventures instead of simply deciphering words on pages, or you can start sharing emotions with an audience instead of wondering what key to press next on that bloody instrument. The technical constraints still exist, but they just disappear, letting the virtuoso forgetting them and creating a whole new world around him, like the musician on my image. I'm quite sure you already told yourself: "oh this is nice, I wish I could do it too". Don't wait, act today and go learn new skills: you really can, you just need to decide it!

Yes, "Monkey Island" were fantastic games, and I enjoyed them immensely when I was a kid. Adventure and humor, such a great cocktail. I wanted to spend some time again with those heroes, so I decided to disguise my little daughter baby Emilie as Guybrush's new opponent, while posing myself as the mighty pirate wannabe! If you've played those games, you probably recognized the cover of the second installment of the series. I used 70 different photos that I mainly shot in my home-studio to create it: various pieces of wood and ropes to create the boat, many costumes pieces, hat, beard, skulls, bones, and of course needles! Assembling everything together took a fair amount of time (around 40 hours altogether) but I enjoyed every minute of it. I'm hopin' ye like it too!

Voodoo ChildEverything photographed and edited by me.
- Guybrush? Guybrush Threepwood?
- The mighty pirate himself!
- Well I have some mighty bad news for you.
- Haha! What's that? We're out of beard conditioner?
- Guybrush, LeChuck is back!
- No, that's impossible! Not again!
- In fact, technically, you're right.
- Glad to hear that!
- He's got a baby.
- Woo... and you're so afraid of a little baby?!?
- This one is different... he's got strange powers... and needles...
- Needles! Hahaha. I've got my faithful sword just there, I can't see how needles could...
- Could what?
- My... my head...
- Your head what?
- It's... Oh no... I... LeChuck... Arrrrrrgh!!!
- Told ya.
Yes, "Monkey Island" were fantastic games, and I enjoyed them immensely when I was a kid. Adventure and humor, such a great cocktail. I wanted to spend some time again with those heroes, so I decided to disguise my little daughter baby Emilie as Guybrush's new opponent, while posing myself as the mighty pirate wannabe! If you've played those games, you probably recognized the cover of the second installment of the series. I used 70 different photos that I mainly shot in my home-studio to create it: various pieces of wood and ropes to create the boat, many costumes pieces, hat, beard, skulls, bones, and of course needles! Assembling everything together took a fair amount of time (around 40 hours altogether) but I enjoyed every minute of it. I'm hopin' ye like it too!

In the evening, I put the TV on, and the return to reality was brutal. As a global society, we really live without consideration for this world. Without stepping into extremism, what shocks me the most are all these unnecessary destructive attitudes, that are widely considered as banal and normal. There's some bug that got into your house? Bam, kill it. There's a tree where you wanted a road? Who cares, cut it. My wife, who is a vet, came back from work in the evening. Once again, she had loads of sad stories. Beside the various illnesses and accidents, a man kicked an old man's cat, simply because it was wandering in his garden. The poor old man was crying. The cat was suffocating, its chest being crushed, then died.

Why? Is power such a heady feeling? Why is it so easy considering ourselves superior on some conveniently crafted scale? Is it simply because we can? All I see is arrogance and stupidity. It really makes me sad. I hope we can learn from our mistakes, but I'm doubting it more and more.

Regarding the technical side of this creation, I started to photograph the moon. Then, my wife posed for the main character: she was originally holding to a rope to avoid falling while maintaining the position, then I shot her right arm and leg separately to create the levitation effect. For the underwater part, I went to a lake nearby, put my camera in a fish tank, and used the whole in the water. It worked quite well: I even shot some real fish unexpectedly! Back home, I photographed lots of pieces of fabric, thrown in various ways: I used those to construct the dress, the tentacles and the wildlife.

DiversityIt was a beautiful week-end. My 7 months old daughter and I were both enjoying the spring sun in the garden. She was looking at everything around her with amazement: grass, flower, cats, bugs, leaves moving in the breeze. Her little hands were overwhelmed, trying to touch and feel everything. There were no words, nor any need for them: our smiles and shiny eyes were speaking for us. I felt so privileged to share this peaceful moment with her.
In the evening, I put the TV on, and the return to reality was brutal. As a global society, we really live without consideration for this world. Without stepping into extremism, what shocks me the most are all these unnecessary destructive attitudes, that are widely considered as banal and normal. There's some bug that got into your house? Bam, kill it. There's a tree where you wanted a road? Who cares, cut it. My wife, who is a vet, came back from work in the evening. Once again, she had loads of sad stories. Beside the various illnesses and accidents, a man kicked an old man's cat, simply because it was wandering in his garden. The poor old man was crying. The cat was suffocating, its chest being crushed, then died.
Why? Is power such a heady feeling? Why is it so easy considering ourselves superior on some conveniently crafted scale? Is it simply because we can? All I see is arrogance and stupidity. It really makes me sad. I hope we can learn from our mistakes, but I'm doubting it more and more.
Regarding the technical side of this creation, I started to photograph the moon. Then, my wife posed for the main character: she was originally holding to a rope to avoid falling while maintaining the position, then I shot her right arm and leg separately to create the levitation effect. For the underwater part, I went to a lake nearby, put my camera in a fish tank, and used the whole in the water. It worked quite well: I even shot some real fish unexpectedly! Back home, I photographed lots of pieces of fabric, thrown in various ways: I used those to construct the dress, the tentacles and the wildlife.
Thanks a lot for watching, I hope you like it.

Little Red NutcrackerEverything photographed and edited by me.

On her way to her Grandma through the woods, Little Red Nutcracker was enjoying the warm summer day so much, that she didn't notice a dark shadow approaching... Suddenly, the wolf appeared beside her.
- "What are you doing out here, little girl?" the wolf asked in a voice as friendly as he could muster.
- "I'm on my way to see my Grandma who lives through the forest, near the brook" she replied.
- "You know the story as much as I do, little girl" the wolf replied.
- "Yes, you are not that nice in fact: you are going to take a shortcut and eat Grandma before I get there!" she answered.
- "That's true... unless you answer these three questions!"
- "Ask me the questions, evil wolf. I am not afraid." she said.
- "What... is your name?" the wolf asked.
- "Little Red Nutcracker!" she replied.
- "What... is your quest?" the wolf then asked.
- "To visit my Grandma and bring her food!" she said.
- "What... is your favorite color?" the wolf finally questioned.
- "Isn't the answer quite obvious!?" she answered.
- "Ha ha, this is not correct! THOU SHALL NOT PASS!" yelled the wolf, moving his arms around.
At that point, Little Red Nutcracker lost patience, quickly ran around the wolf, and kicked him so hard that the wolf took off in the air, disappearing in the sky. He would not ask for her name ever again, and definitely stopped believing in children tales for good.

Candlelight Tango

You can see some photos of the exhibition here. Exciting stuff!

Liberté d'ExpressionEverything photographed and edited by me.

As you probably know, on 7 January 2015 occurred the deadliest act of terrorism in France of the last 50 years. 12 persons died in the offices of "Charlie Hebdo", a satirical newspaper, because they believed in an absolute form of freedom of expression. I must confess this tragedy hurt me deeply. A few days later, a gigantic march occurred in Paris as an historical act of protestation against terror, against censorship. At least everything is not lost, millions of people still believe in those values: it was somewhat heart-warming.

The day after that march, I decided to pay an homage to this reaction, by recreating another version of the famous painting "La liberté guidant le peuple" by Eugène Delacroix. In this version, I replaced all the weapons by pens, pencils, cameras or books, as a metaphor for the defense of freedom of expression.

Of course, that painting involves various characters, and I don't have access to lots of models. As a consequence, I brought my camera at work, and quickly improvised a shooting session. I had no lighting gear at all, so it was a bit challenging, but lots of people spontaneously accepted to pose for the project. Thank you so much everyone! From left to right:
- Olivier, the photographer, always keen for a good laugh
- Simon, the dead clown, and the most helpful guy you'll ever meet
- Ronan, the singer, that definitely does not need a microphone in real life
- Francesca, the social networker, unstoppable whatever the circumstances
- Marianne, la République, my dear wife who guides my life
- Yannick, the paperboy, whose brain is quicker that light
- Luc, the dead book-writer, as clever as Yoda, but much more handsome

It was an ambitious project, very challenging to achieve in a few days (there are 44 different photos assembled in the final image, and I shot around 1000 of them to get there), but I am happy of the result, and I hope others will enjoy it too.

Thanks for watching, et Vive la Liberté !

ParthenogenesisHave you ever wondered what part of you is really you? I mean, we all are the sum of various influences (parents, brothers, sisters, friends, wife, husband, kids, colleagues, etc.), and of various experiences (most of which we did not choose in the first place), but does some kind of personal core exist? Is there something inside you that is purely your own being? And if so, would it even be possible to identify it, to store it in some way, to clone it or transmit it?

I was day dreaming about that, when the idea of this recursive image appeared in my mind. I thought a steampunk environment would fit the project nicely. As usual, I started by drawing some rough sketches, which proved to be very useful here (preparing the appropriate position in order for the multiple photos to align well was important). Then I disguised myself with a hat and goggles I've bought a long time ago (for another project that I've never finished), and shot a self portrait as well as all the other items: flame, copper tubes, steam, and so on. The editing part was fun, because I was unsure of the result until the very last steps: I spent 90% of the time on the main character, and all the other copies were created at the end. It felt a bit like a little surprise ;-) Thanks for watching!

Liberté d'ExpressionEverything photographed and edited by me.

As you probably know, on 7 January 2015 occurred the deadliest act of terrorism in France of the last 50 years. 12 persons died in the offices of "Charlie Hebdo", a satirical newspaper, because they believed in an absolute form of freedom of expression. I must confess this tragedy hurt me deeply. A few days later, a gigantic march occurred in Paris as an historical act of protestation against terror, against censorship. At least everything is not lost, millions of people still believe in those values: it was somewhat heart-warming.

The day after that march, I decided to pay an homage to this reaction, by recreating another version of the famous painting "La liberté guidant le peuple" by Eugène Delacroix. In this version, I replaced all the weapons by pens, pencils, cameras or books, as a metaphor for the defense of freedom of expression.

Of course, that painting involves various characters, and I don't have access to lots of models. As a consequence, I brought my camera at work, and quickly improvised a shooting session. I had no lighting gear at all, so it was a bit challenging, but lots of people spontaneously accepted to pose for the project. Thank you so much everyone! From left to right:
- Olivier, the photographer, always keen for a good laugh
- Simon, the dead clown, and the most helpful guy you'll ever meet
- Ronan, the singer, that definitely does not need a microphone in real life
- Francesca, the social networker, unstoppable whatever the circumstances
- Marianne, la République, my dear wife who guides my life
- Yannick, the paperboy, whose brain is quicker that light
- Luc, the dead book-writer, as clever as Yoda, but much more handsome

It was an ambitious project, very challenging to achieve in a few days (there are 44 different photos assembled in the final image, and I shot around 1000 of them to get there), but I am happy of the result, and I hope others will enjoy it too.

Thanks for watching, et Vive la Liberté !

Holy WarsWhen I was a kid, I was a great fan of all the biblical stories. I thought they were perfect illustrations of how Humanity should live: tolerance, love, hard work, solidarity. These values really meant something for me, and I was convinced that spreading the word was the best thing to do to make the world a better place.

Then, as the years passed, I realized that these nice parables were mostly for children. Adults would literally fight each other to *force* anyone not thinking the same way to do so. Despite those values, anyone not willing to follow the very same ideas would be considered as an enemy, and treated as such.

Don't get me wrong, I am not talking about one religion particularly: if one takes a look at History books, it is easy to see how all of them have been used as reasons to conquer, divide, exterminate. They still are: turn your TV set on any news channel, and you are going to see many outrageous examples, from many sides.

While there are lots of good things to be learned from religious books, I really cannot understand how something supposed to raise the spirit have led to intolerance, segregation, violence, wars, and deaths by millions. It really is a great, great shame, and definitely contributed to turn me away from religion. Maybe it is time, in this 21st century, to really forget about religion being used as a political tool. Mixing governments and spirituality sounds so anachronistic to me.

A few words about the creation of this image: I photographed and edited everything, no stock have been used. I first sketched the scenery, to identify the various positions I was going to need, then wore that armor in my home studio and photographed the various crusaders. My wife also posed for the victims. The rest has been shot around my hometown: clouds, ground, fire. Thanks for watching, much appreciated!

Halloween in HamelinLobbyists are found in most communities. The most obvious ones are present in politics, or religion, but one can observe them in virtually any field, at much more modest scales. I suppose we all know a colleague telling everyone what they should eat or not, or a neighbor explaining the whole street how lawn is supposed to be mowed. Some would tell everyone around them how kids should be raised, some would spend hours explaining why some TV show should be seen, or why something is art or is not. There are hundreds of similar examples.

What I find dangerous about these persons, is when they act in a unsolicited way. It is one thing to give your opinion when asked for it, but it is a whole another one to stuff your ideas into random mouths. Of course, such little propaganda has often some success, since at a given time, one will always find weaker members in a given community, either affected by personal problems hence more vulnerable, or simply newcomers, uninitiated minds. Rallying others to some cause (even an insignificant one) gives some kind of power, which polishes the ego. It is an easy way to feel important: I suspect this is the reason why I see so many so-called opinion leaders wandering around.

In the "Pied Piper of Hamelin" legend, the piper has the power of luring rats and children away using the sound of his instrument. I decided to use this story as a metaphor for my observations. Moreover, referring to the Halloween theme was a good way to mix folklores, which I always find interesting.

Technically, I started the project by a rough sketch, in order to keep in mind all the different photos I had to take. Then, I brought several rocks in my studio, and photographed them under various angles using the same lighting setup, in order to assemble them in post-processing and create that dangerous path. Meanwhile, my dear wife carved the pumpkin in order to give it a demoniacal smile, which I photographed lit by a mix of candle light and studio strobes, using a long exposure. Then I had to wait for the night, and started a fire in my garden to photograph flames and smoke. Last but not least, I also posed for the piper and the victims: jumping and fooling around naked with a bag on the head was quite interesting ;-)

ArabesqueI am not really into goods photography, but for once, I decided to give it a try. Creating an image suitable for jewelry advertisement sounded like an interesting challenge.

As nor my wife nor I possess any precious jewelry, fully designing one from scratch was the only option, not mentioning a fun one. My wife is quite good with a pencil, and she managed to sketch the main lines of the item on a piece of paper. I scanned it and used it as a reference in the project.

From there, I photographed a round, smooth metal bar that I deformed accordingly to create the legs, arms, torso and head of the ballet dancer. My expectations weren't too high, but in the end I was positively surprised by the result: this is definitely a technique I will use again, as it is not that hard and gives nice outputs. Very handy. That project was well worth it experience-wise!

Then, I photographed those little garnets flowers, moving them as needed to obtain the right angle for each shot. Then I assembled them on the canvas to create the dancer outfit. Technically not too hard (provided you have a macro lens and some lighting) but a bit time consuming.

Last but not least, photographing the cat did not work as expected: the model I originally wanted in my picture was not cooperating at all. In the end, one of my other cats came into the room with a posing mood, so I simply adjusted my plans! No regrets from that side, as I love how he looks in there :-)

Emilie's WorldLet me introduce you to my daughter Emilie!
She was born on September 13, and she is the sweetest baby ever :-)

While it is not my most recent work, it is still a fantastic news, and I am very honored to have been chosen for the first rank.

Fiery

• Gold Medal (category "No worries – Luck, Happiness & Fun") for "Underwater Hurdling"
• Gold Medal (category "Unusual") for "Burnout"

Underwater Hurdling BurnoutAll the photos and editing by me (2014).

My wife is not feeling well these days. Usually, she's solid as a rock: working all day long, sometimes even during nights too, is quite normal for her. In fact, I rarely saw someone so passionate about their job. As a vet, she would never put her own comfort above the one of her furry patients, even when it implies staying unexpectedly for hours at her workplace, skipping sleep time, or letting an ill animal sleeping on the couch rather than in his cage. Observing her gives me the impression she's got many more arms than I do.

But about 6 weeks ago, things started to change. Her strengths started to leave her body. She lost much weight in two weeks, and she was not exactly fat to begin with. Staying on her feet became too hard, and she purely and simply had to stay in the bed. Working was simply unthinkable. Needless to say, I began to worry quite a lot: it was like everything in her was fragile. I was feeling the negativity trying to grasp both her body and her mind. One night, when she was trying to get some sleep despite her state, I took my tablet and started to draw a rough sketch of her. I knew the picture had to be dark, involving fire, consuming her, with things appearing from the darkness. When she saw the result in the morning, she liked it: according to her, while most of my sketches look like made by a 4 years old child, this one was much more convincing. So we decided to go for it, and shoot all the photos we needed. She bravely posed in our home studio. It was not easy for her: at the end of the shooting, she was very weak, and things started to revolve around her. I did my best to create an image from there. In the following days, we even discussed together about color adjustments, size of the flames, and various small details here and there. It was great to have some fun together.

Doctors say they can't do much for her. However, things should get much better in the following weeks. After all, even though the effects are very strong on her, they rarely last during the 9 months. Yes, she's pregnant, I am going to be a dad! :-)

The Trierenberg Super Circuit international contest is one of the biggest photo contest in the world, with about 80.000 entries each year. In addition of these 2 images, a whole bunch of other of my creations will be included in the exposition which will occur later this year in Linz, Austria:

• Creativity
• Schism
• Magritte's Muse
• Rodeo to the Sky
• Primordial Soup
• Alike
• E=mc²

CreativityAll the photos and editing by me (2014).

A few days ago, I was trying to find some inspiration for a new image. I suppose everyone has his own little tricks for that. One of my personal favorite is to let my mind jump from an idea to another, like in a ping pong game. For example, it can start with something I see around me, then this thing reminds me of an old experience I had with it, then this situation reminds me my feelings that very day, which gives me memories of something totally different, and so on. I often land very far away from the initial idea when I play that game, and it is quite fun and often surprising I must say! In this work, I wanted to illustrate this flow: some droplets of imagination are poured in the ocean of mind, and various concepts and ideas emerge. So, what are your own techniques for finding ideas?

I would like to specially thank my dear wife. Not only did she accept to pose for that strange picture, but she also was of a great help with its creation. We spent several hours sketching the bodies again and again, imagining their shapes and arranging them on the canvas, before obtaining something we were happy with. I am a very lucky man.

A few technical notes:

• Stars, photographed around 1am at 6400 iso: the denoising software did a very good job on it.
• Wavelets on water: we went to a local lake in the morning, and positioned ourselves relatively to the sun to reproduce the desired lighting. We were worried a bit due to the presence of a fisherman, but we found a spot far enough of him so that throwing rocks in water wouldn't disturb him.
• Cloudy sky: shot at the same time just above the lake, so that the clouds reflections would match.
• Body parts: 16 photos were selected and arranged in the final composition. All of them were photographed at home, with 2 strobes: one for reproducing the main light source (we moved it during the shooting so that its position would be accurate for each part) and another as fill.
• Splashes: 16 photos are used here too. Most of them were achieved by throwing a rock in a bowl full of water. The lighting setup was designed to only light the water from the side, and keep a black background: this permitted an much easier insertion in the composite. I also had to clean the lens between each shot ;)

Schism

Magritte's Muse

Rodeo to the Sky

Primordial SoupAll the photos and editing by me, no stock (2013).

Defining life is a complex question, and quite controversial as well. A commonly accepted definition can be put as follows (according to Wikipedia): "Life is a characteristic that distinguishes objects that have signaling and self-sustaining processes from those that do not, either because such functions have ceased (death), or else because they lack such functions and are classified as inanimate". Of course, those "signaling and self-sustaining processes" would need to be precised, which is even harder to do, as many entities are along a grey line regarding the implied physiological functions (for example viruses and other replicators, various hybrids, artificial/mechanical life, etc.)

Regardless of those considerations, the origin of life is a fascinating question. When I was a kid, I heard at school about the infamous Miller–Urey experiment, also known as the "Primitive Soup" experiment: it probably entirely changed my vision of life. Simply put, basic components (water, methane, ammonia, hydrogen) were put in a flask, and electric sparks were fired to simulate lightning: after a few days, organic compounds were present. Of course, I am no chemist nor biologist, so details are beyond my understanding, but the idea that there is a recipe for life is, again, fascinating to me: put the right ingredients in the right pot, wait a bit, and tadaaaa! Life appears. It is almost like creating "something" from "nothing". The Holy Grail of any artist ;-)

Of course, abiogenesis (which is how this process is called) can be disturbing to some, as it desecrates life, considering that it is a logical and mechanical consequence of the appropriate starting conditions. Life would not be that special after all. Personally, I like this idea a lot, as it is a humble approach of the importance of our own existence, as human beings. After all, our species believed once that Earth was the center of the universe, while we now know it is an insignificant dust lost in the immensity. Similarly, I tend to think that human beings are nothing that special, merely the result of a mechanism started a few billions years ago. I do realize this vision may not be necessarily shared by everyone, but I wanted to express that point of view in my "Primitive Soup" image.

I must say I had great fun creating it. Everything started Saturday July 27th 2013 around 6.00am. My wife and I were awakened by thunder and lightnings. The large droplets of rain were hitting the windows loudly, and after a few minutes, she said to me: "You should go take some lighting photos, these could be useful for the next project". A few minutes later, I was standing half-naked in front of our house, with the camera on a tripod, asking myself what I was doing here. The storm was almost over, but I managed to obtain a couple of shots. While doing so, contemplating the electricity in the sky reminded me that Primitive Soup experiment: this is the moment I decided to create an illustration of that concept.

In the afternoon, I wanted to shoot underwater photos. However, I do not have a housing for my DSLR, nor any waterproof camera. So I took an empty 50 liters aquarium I have at home, and put my camera in it. Then I stepped into the river next to my house, and used the aquarium as a little submarine: worked like a charm! The photos were mostly muddy and blurry, but it was exactly what I needed texture-wise.

Then, back at home, I installed the aquarium in my garden, brought some studio strobes, in order to shoot various photos of black ink sinking into water. Quite an easy setup, and the shapes you get are remarkable. I created the left leg combining several of these photos. The day after, I posed in my studio for the emerging human trunk. I covered myself with mud and water: an interesting experience ;-) Finally, the right leg was created using bread dough, either stretched by hand, or installed on metallic wires to mimic morphological shapes. My wife was of a great help on that: she designed the pseudo-DNA helix as well as the calf part.

I am very happy I was able to translate my thoughts into that image. Of course, it is obviously not at all a realistic approach, rather a digested vision of my mind. I hope some will find it interesting. In any case, thanks for watching, I appreciate your attention a lot.

Alike

E=mc²This photo was realized without post-processing.

If you follow my work, you probably know I like taking advantage of post-processing, in order to create composites. I like the fantasy it allows. However, I sometimes get messages from people challenging me to create something without such tool, and I decided to give it a try.

It might be a bit surprising, but in order to create this photo, I found myself using the very same set of skills I acquired when doing my extensively edited images. In fact, even if you use different tools, different ways of doing things, the underlying principles remain the same.

First of all, as always, the main difficulty is to come up with a convincing concept, a good idea. Obviously, post-processing is of no help about that: knowing how to handle a tool does not tell you what to do with it. So I started to think about "numbers", personifying them sounded interesting: from there, I had to choose someone who was notoriously related to that topic. Albert Einstein was an obvious candidate. I decided to pay him an homage, using the numbers "299792458" (the speed of light in meters per second, i.e. the value 'c' in the infamous formula).

When one creates a composite in post-processing, there are several difficulties to take into account, but a major one is the composition. Placing all the items harmoniously on the canvas can be painful, but fortunately, when you do it with some software, you can make lots of tries easily. I believe creating composites taught me more about composition than any other exercise. Here, this experience was useful, since changing the position of all these pieces of paper once they are glued is a gigantic pain. Moreover, I wanted to add some perspective to the portrait (just like when you deform a layer in Photoshop), except that I had to do it directly on the setup itself: for that, I built pillars made of cardboard, that I put under the face to lift it as needed (for example the nose has the highest pillar, so that it is the closest part to the camera).

Another usual tools used in post-processing are "dodging and burning". These are very important, to add depth and local contrast, or even to create shadows in composites. Despite the fact this was a "minimal editing" challenge, I wanted to use them anyway, since they usually make a very important difference when it comes to visual impact. What I did is that I printed all the numbers on different shades of gray: the pieces of paper are not all the same. For example, the ones in the background are the darkest ones, while the ones positioned on the left of the face (Einstein's left, your right) are the brightest ones. As you can imagine, choosing the appropriate color of paper for each zone of the setup required some work and thinking (in fact the same reasoning than in post-processing, but done directly with the items themselves).

Creating that setup took about 12 hours of work. As usual, my wonderful wife did an incredible job on it, and without her help I doubt this would have been possible within the challenge week. When it was done, I worked on the lighting setup, which required 3 more hours. Nothing unusual here, but I wanted the vignette to be as perfect as possible: I used different pieces of black cardboard around the setup to create shadows in the corners as needed. Positioning those precisely was a bit long. Technically, 2 strobes were used, both from the right: a softbox at mid-power, to give an ambient light to the scene, and a snoot at full power on the face, to get good contrast and shadows.

All in all, I am very happy about the result. The "pre-processing" (as opposed to "post-processing") worked as intended. In fact, I tried to optimize it afterwards, and except a few hair and dusts I would have cloned out, there is not much I would have adjusted. For those that are wondering, I did not use the camera settings capabilities: as a photographer, I see no valid reason to let the camera adjust or decide things for me, I want to have a full control over my work. This is why I simply set it to B/W and called it a day: the rest comes from my work on the setup and its lighting.

Exciting times!

Some persons were curious about how it was done. I am sure there are plenty of ways to get there, but here is what I did:

• First of all, it is very important to pose accordingly to the result you expect. I looked at various images of the character in the movies, and studied his postures and expressions. This is why I chose to cower myself, and make the biggest eyes I could. Yes, expect to look silly!
• Once you have a base you are happy with, you can start deforming the face and body.
• First, Gollum has big ears. Consequently, I duplicated the visible ear, made it bigger, and positioned it over the real one. I worked a bit on the transitions using masks and a smooth brush.
• The eyes are also much bigger: for that step, I used the enlargement tool in the 'Liquify' module.
• Then I had to remove my hair: I covered it with my own skin, duplicated from other parts of my body (arm and back). At this stage, some dodging and burning was necessary, in order to create a believable lighting on the upper part of the head.
• I also duplicated some wrinkles under the eyes, and made the teeth triangular.
• In order to finalize the face, I added some hair, thin, long and rare.
• Regarding the body, I used liquify again, this time to change the proportions of the arm, leg, and back. The goal here was of course to make them skinny, since Gollum has long and thing members (when compared to a standard man body).
• Finally, I did some colors adjustments: desaturated yellow and red tones, added some red around the eyes, nose, and arms, then added some muddy texture and a cold photo filter.

Not fully accurate of course, but quite entertaining to do! Here is a "before and after" comparison: can you guess which is which? ;-)

1. Photos

• It is important to take photos of fire by yourself: doing so, you will be free to take as many pictures as you want, which will prove to be useful in the next steps.
• Wait for the night: you do need a black background behind the fire, it is not going to work well if the sky is not dark enough.
• Create your fire so that there is nothing directly behind it, again, to get a black background. Things can be there in the distance though, we don't really mind: they won't get enough light from the fire to really have any impact on the result. Regarding the fire itself, most of the time I use a cheap barbecue and some thin branches (I don't need the fire to last very long, a few minutes is enough).
• Shooting time! I usually use fully manual mode, with something like f/5.6, 1/250s, ISO400. If you need your picture to be brighter or darker, play with the aperture. Something between f/4 and f/7.1 should be fine whatsoever.
• I usually take about 200-300 photos, so that I end up with a good collection of various shapes.

2. Editing

• The key when editing fire, in my opinion, is to NOT change its shape very much. It can be tempting to use the 'liquify' tool a lot, but it will be hard to keep a realistic look. This is why I recommend to take so many photos after all: do spend the necessary time to pick the shapes that fit your project the best.
• Add the layer containing your selected fire photo over your project, and put the layer in 'screen' mode. The magic of blending modes will make anything black automatically disappear: no tedious masking work required!
• If needed, adjust the levels of your fire photo (I usually bump the blacks a bit, just to make sure the background behind the fire is fully pure black)
• Here you go!

This is the very technique I used in my latest creation, 'Burnout':

BurnoutAll the photos and editing by me (2014).

My wife is not feeling well these days. Usually, she's solid as a rock: working all day long, sometimes even during nights too, is quite normal for her. In fact, I rarely saw someone so passionate about their job. As a vet, she would never put her own comfort above the one of her furry patients, even when it implies staying unexpectedly for hours at her workplace, skipping sleep time, or letting an ill animal sleeping on the couch rather than in his cage. Observing her gives me the impression she's got many more arms than I do.

But about 6 weeks ago, things started to change. Her strengths started to leave her body. She lost much weight in two weeks, and she was not exactly fat to begin with. Staying on her feet became too hard, and she purely and simply had to stay in the bed. Working was simply unthinkable. Needless to say, I began to worry quite a lot: it was like everything in her was fragile. I was feeling the negativity trying to grasp both her body and her mind. One night, when she was trying to get some sleep despite her state, I took my tablet and started to draw a rough sketch of her. I knew the picture had to be dark, involving fire, consuming her, with things appearing from the darkness. When she saw the result in the morning, she liked it: according to her, while most of my sketches look like made by a 4 years old child, this one was much more convincing. So we decided to go for it, and shoot all the photos we needed. She bravely posed in our home studio. It was not easy for her: at the end of the shooting, she was very weak, and things started to revolve around her. I did my best to create an image from there. In the following days, we even discussed together about color adjustments, size of the flames, and various small details here and there. It was great to have some fun together.

Doctors say they can't do much for her. However, things should get much better in the following weeks. After all, even though the effects are very strong on her, they rarely last during the 9 months. Yes, she's pregnant, I am going to be a dad! :-)

Thanks for reading, and be careful with the fire!

Darth SushiAll the photos and editing by me.

Cats always get what they wish for. Mine would virtually never change their minds when they have decided something: going outside, coming back in, sleeping on the bed just next to me, destroying toilet paper, or eat something they shouldn't. I suspect them to use dark powers in that regard, I'm sure they must be Sith Lords in disguise. Don't you agree? "I find your lack of faith disturbing!"

I had good fun creating this image. Once I was set on the idea, I had to find a way to shoot the main character, and there was no way to put a Darth Vader costume on one of my cat ;-) So I asked my wife to pose for me. Needless to say, she loooved it ;-) Of course, I had to tweak the result in post, in order to, well, adjust the shape of the body. From there, we tried to photograph one of my cat, a black and white one... such a mess! The poor thing was really not in the mood, and the results were not usable. So I had to change my plans and use another model: this time things went smoothly, even though it was not black and white. I could have adjusted its color in post, but in fact, I quite liked its original aspect, so I just left it as it was. Finally, I went for some shopping, bought the round little tank, and snapped some fishes that were on sale.

Thanks for watching, much appreciated!

Another BrickAll the photos and editing by me (2013).

Difference is often perceived as an anomaly, as an error to be corrected, an illness to be cured. Of course, being a member of the majority is reassuring, it is natural to be attracted by the protection of the group. However, why attack those that have other aspirations? When I turn the TV on, when I read some magazine or newspaper, when I simply look around me, I keep witnessing intolerance against difference. Lifestyle, skin color, sexuality, politics, religion, haircut... literally anything not in line with the majority is systematically attacked.

Let's imagine for a second a whole society, a whole world, full of similar persons, looking the same, thinking the same, loving and hating the same things... it would be a guaranty for a total absence of evolution. Each kid would receive the same education, generation after generation. Art, experimentation, any kind of individual expression would be extensively controlled and adjusted, to fit the mandatory "good" taste. I hope such perspective looks as frightening to you, as it looks to me. If so, please, express yourself: create! Play music, sing, write poetry or books or blogs, paint, draw, photograph the world or your fantasy, record movies, dance, sculpt, code software or video games... anything. Do it now, and share it around: helps this world staying alive.

EveAs usual, no stock, all my own photos and processing (2013).

While some ideas or photo concepts reach my mind quite naturally, I must confess that this one was hard to come up with. Speaking about the origins of life in a metaphorical way is definitely a challenge, since people can obviously have very different interpretations of the subject. This is why I choose to combine several concepts together: Eve and the forbidden fruit, a broken egg, plants, life, death. While I am not myself a religious man, so many incredible pieces of art have religion as an inspiration: I would be a fool to ignore that fact. So I decided to follow the steps of many famous artists in History, modestly and respectfully, since my goal was not to be provocative in any way. I must say I am very proud of the result, and I hope some will like this combination of classicism and modernism.

Regarding the making of the image, my dear wife was once again wonderful. Not only did she accept to pose, but she also had great ideas to help with the composition (particularly the plant shape) and colors: I would never had reached this result without her. Besides the main photo, I also took shots of a broken egg shell (I used it combined with her body), plants, leaves. The hair is also my wife’s, although it has been shot separately, and recolored.

With this image, I believe I am getting closer to what I truly want to express through my work, style-wise and meaning-wise. I am of course aware that some could hate it for several reasons, but I feel the need to keep trying new things and walking forward on the creation path.

• First, I got invited to be a member of the jury for the 2013 competition. That step happened in December 2013 on the behalf of Chris Hinterobermaier, in Austria. It was quite intense, as around 8.000 photos had to be reviewed, but also extremely interesting as it gave me the opportunity to meet 5 fantastic photographers, who were the other jury members:
  • Derek Galon, Canada
  • David Mould, Scotland
  • Gabriel O'Shaughnessy, Ireland
  • João Taborda, Portugal
  • Ario Wibisono, Indonesia
• As if it wasn't enough, a few weeks later, I received a new e-mail from Chris, to attend the prizes ceremony in Qatar! It was simply fabulous. The ceremony itself was great, and the Qatar Photographic Society organized for us a discovery of the country, including a mesmerizing trip in the desert! I am so thankful, it was an unforgettable experience.

David also covered the whole event extensively on his blog, you may want to take a look.

At Your Service For Decades