INTERVIEW
About the exhibition « Hautes Coutures » in Phot’Aix, October 2005.
-Al, my first question… How long does it take to make one
of your compositions?
-The making of the picture? Well, about half an hour scanning,
six hours in all for the computer work and about another half
hour for the print.
-You mean you work exclusively for the print?
-Yes. Its’ harder, every detail shows on a 40x40 print, but more rewarding.
-And the computer work…
-In fact, half the computer work is assembling, positioning,
orienting and colour matching, the other half is “cleaning-up”
work on the details…
-Yes but when and how do you choose the elements on
a picture?
-Only rarely do I have all the elements at hand. So most of
the time, the elements need to be collected in the outside
world...
-So you mean your pictures are thought out before the
computer assembling step?
-Yes. Always. I write down the ideas, sketch the scenes,
and make lists of elements I need. If it’s scenery, it often
means waiting for the ideal situation. With models, or the kids
in the scenes, I try to make them participate in the making.
-So back to my first question… How long does it take to
make one of your compositions?
-Well, then lets say the technical part, 7 hours. The rest…
its impossible to say. Some pictures span over two years,
waiting for the ideal scenery, like “moonset”… or the other
way round, it can take a year to have a good idea with a good
scenery… I am more a picture collector than a photographer…
if that makes sense…
-So your ideas are logged on a book? Can you show me?
-Here for example, I have sketched six possible pictures.
The themes of gravity, rain, wind… all to go into the same
portfolio. Next to the sketches, the fragments that are missing,
and details on the postures of the models.
-This is very far from the “instant decisif”…
-Yes, by the technical making steps, but no by the conception,
since all pictures appeared to me in thought at one instant,
in such a perfect arrangement. The whole difference is in
the translating of a visual idea and every technical step betrays
the initial idea. It’s a compromise.
-So is this still photography?
-Of course. Not only every piece of the composition is a
photograph, but the process of fixing “something” is exactly
the same as more traditional photographers, or to refer to
the same person, “quick drawing”…
-But how do you define…
-Of course, there’s a “plasticien” approach, but as someone
involuntarily put it…”Its all just a waste of time”. I like that.
Look at all the kids pulling, pushing, running, contemplating…
all just wasting their time for an impossible cause. And kids
have an exceptional ability to “waste their time.” So do I.
