How did you become a photographer? Would you define yourself as a one?
I feel more comfortable with the idea of an artist photographer. As a fine arts graduate, my interest in photography lead me to explore the world around me. I started by taking a direct look at the objects that surround us, to highlight the often unseen relationship between these objects and our intimate world. I’ve constructed a personal identity coupled with a sociological frame of reference that may give life to new interpretations.
I’m currently interested in the gestures and the intimate sphere of different ethnic or social communities – often both. I am seeking to build a dialogue, a continuity, through the discovery of micro-worlds with their own – often unwritten – codes of conduct.
What drives you as a photographer?
What drives me? To remain true to myself, to my universe. I like to observe and question the world around me in its confrontation with the duality and contradictions of modern man, between the search for a singular identity and the need to belong.
The challenge is to find the right angle, the right distance with the subjects that I encounter in my work.
Do you think there is such thing as a ‘woman’s gaze’ in photography? Is such a notion relevant to you?
As a woman, I’ve forged a certain way of seeing and looking. However, in my research, I don’t seek to purposely evoke a feminist way of thinking but rather something human, universal. Even if I explore subjects belonging to the feminine universe, what I propose above all is a way of seeing. It may be interesting or it may not.
Has being a woman influenced your work as an artist in any way?
Being a woman shapes my vision of the world. In some of my projects, I set up an intimate dimension and propose a contemporary identity-based reading around the notion of the body or the habitat. But I remain convinced that my status as an artist depends more on my creative interests than on my status as a woman.
Do you make a living from your art?
I always say to myself that if I was American it would be simpler. I would know how to “sell myself” as part of my culture. I’m trying to work on that.
Currently, yes, I’m able to live from my art. But not so long ago I was still living like a student.
I’m still waiting to be able to buy a plane ticket to Rio de Janeiro. At the moment I need to pay my taxes and repay my debts.
Which authors inspire you? Are there any women photographers among them?
I’m inspired by all forms of creation. I find the architectural and immersive sculptures of Do Ho Suh, the labyrinthine spaces of Chiharu Shiota or the textile objects of Sheila Hicks particularly appealing. I’m also attracted to the way Irma Boom manages to reinvent books. I admire the crazy universe created by David LaChapelle, or the stagings of Hassan Hajjaj. I love Andreas Gursky’s frontality and the way he looks at our world. I also find a lot of inspiration in the way Hans Eijkelboom photographs people in the public space in his work Paris-New York- Shanghai. I’ve enthusiastically followed the work of Valérie Belin on bodybuilders: I was struck by the absence and the presence of the individual in her photos. Recently, I discovered the work of Sally Mann and I find her intimist approach to the family and habitat quite fascinating.
