What is your motivation to make your genre of photographic art?

What drives me the most during a project, is the challenge of discovering ways to express what I felt in the moment I took the photos. I always use analogue cameras, as working the images in the darkroom is the most exciting and crucial part of my creative process. As much as I love photography as a tool to capture ‘reality’, I often feel that a raw negative doesn’t fully grasp and express the energy, emotion, interaction and atmosphere felt between the subject-model, location and photographer.

Therefore, after shooting, I begin to test, tweak and explore different darkroom techniques to find a way to reproduce the felt experience and communicate my concept and message to connect the real world with the invisible, the felt and imagined. For my project on North Korea, for instance, I developed a technique that mimics the same atmosphere I experienced. This involved exposing and peeling the prints over and over again to imitate, on one side, the strong sense of detachment from reality and misinformation I received, as well as, the way that information is lost through the myriad layers of oppression and censorship that exist in North Korea.

How does your cultural background influence your art?

Growing up in Quebec, I always felt culturally encouraged to pursue art (e.g. education, parents). Quebec strongly funds the arts, something that I took for granted until I left Canada. After moving abroad, I understood that I have a very privilege background. Artists for instance get paid shipping/artist fees to exhibit their work (as long as the gallery is under the CARFAC law), while in other countries many artists get paid nothing, or even have to pay a renting fee for the gallery space which is very common in Japan, Finland or China; a system that makes what is often a poor artist poorer.

I don’t think I would have been lasted as long if it hadn’t been for my supportive background.

What is the most difficult thing you have experienced making photos?

The biggest challenge I ever had to coped with professionally was getting access to the Alpha-Inn hotel in Japan, the most famous S&M love hotel in Japan. I had just finished a project on a theme-decorated hotel in New York and shortly after embarked on a photographic exploration of love hotels in Japan. The Alpha-Inn had a strict no-photo policy, thus, getting permission from the owner was a long and persistent exchange of attempts and rejections. After almost two years of living in Tokyo and continuously trying, I got him a copy of my recently published book ‘New York Hotel Stories’ which then finally persuaded him (maybe because he was tired of saying ‘no’). He then invited me to come back to japan a few years later to make a project exclusively on his hotel with unlimited access. (Tokyo Hotel Story exhibition)

WCW Questionnaire

How would you describe your creative process in one word?
Experimental – As I devote most of my creative process to exploration in the darkroom. On one side, it reflects my technical methods, exploring, testing, re-inventing, trying to push the traditional boundaries of photography and discovering new techniques. On the other side, this experimental method also gives my creativity and imagination space to explore the conceptual aspects of my projects.

If you would teach one, one-hour class on anything, what would it be?
I would like to teach about the social and emotional aspects of photography. I believe it is crucial for photographic work, at least mine, to get to know the subject-models, have an exchange, research and learn at first hand. To not just go in and out quickly but allowing the time that is required to get a closer insight and put oneself in another’s shoes to prevent prejudice, to challenge and understand one’s own preconceptions. I believe it is important as a photographer to represent my subject-models appropriately and wish the resultant images to reflect their true essence.

What was the last book you read or film you saw that inspired you?
Last inspiring and probably most meaningful film I’ve seen is ‘Sans Soleil’ by Chris Marker.

What is the most played song in your iTunes Library?
‘Drive’ by the Cars - it touches something from my childhood but I’m still trying to figure out what…

How do you take your coffee?
I drank 3 coffees in my whole life, the 3rd time I was shaking so much I could hardly function. I already make blurry photos, so I didn’t want to add a shaky hand to my work.