26.05.2006
OLIVIER JOLLANT, France ❧
"SERIES: HOMAGE TO THE YOUNG, THE NEW & THE EXCEPTIONAL CREATIVE TALENTS AROUND THE WORLD"
READ THIS FIRST: All images here are COPYRIGHT PROTECTED. You are advised to contact the artist direct for permission to re-produce any of his/her images. Contact details are available at the end of this article, or in absence thereof, please contact the Editor at Blue Mango TV.
"Exciter""It's instant drawing."
That notable statement describing photography was uttered by one of the
greatest photographer that ever lived, Henri Cartier-Bresson, a
founding father of photojournalism, after putting down his camera never
to touch it again after 45 years of photography.
Cartier-Bresson was 67 then, and that was 1975.
An interesting conflicting statement from the same person who once, when he put down his paint brush to take up photography seriously, said, "I suddenly understood that a photograph could fix eternity in an instant."
Cartier-Bresson was born in 1908 (died 2004) in Chanteloupe, France. He had an early interest and training in painting and studied for two years in a Paris studio. Painting was the obsession he would return to eventually at the final chapters of his life.
It would influence him especially in his photographic composition in his later years, as he would draw on his earlier love and interest in the arts to enable him to compose and capture the perfect image, at "the decisive moment". He would be the one to famously quip that the camera itself was an "extension of the eye", and to explain that "Photography is not like painting. There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative ..."
In our time, and after the legendary Cartier-Bresson had laid his camera to rest, the capturing of an image for posterity has become the world's obsession, and it is with stunning fascination that we see beautiful images taken by creative photographers who know just when to capture at just the decisive moment. They are further gifted with the practiced ability to enhance further a subject matter, and to include artistic hues and tones forever banishing the "instant drawing" statement, before presenting for our enjoyment and appreciation, truly beautiful art photography that can literally take our breath away.
There are certain photographers who look about them and observe details in the world through lenses that capture brilliant and inspiring hues borrowed from a rainbow's palette.
Cartier-Bresson was 67 then, and that was 1975.
An interesting conflicting statement from the same person who once, when he put down his paint brush to take up photography seriously, said, "I suddenly understood that a photograph could fix eternity in an instant."
Cartier-Bresson was born in 1908 (died 2004) in Chanteloupe, France. He had an early interest and training in painting and studied for two years in a Paris studio. Painting was the obsession he would return to eventually at the final chapters of his life.
It would influence him especially in his photographic composition in his later years, as he would draw on his earlier love and interest in the arts to enable him to compose and capture the perfect image, at "the decisive moment". He would be the one to famously quip that the camera itself was an "extension of the eye", and to explain that "Photography is not like painting. There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative ..."
In our time, and after the legendary Cartier-Bresson had laid his camera to rest, the capturing of an image for posterity has become the world's obsession, and it is with stunning fascination that we see beautiful images taken by creative photographers who know just when to capture at just the decisive moment. They are further gifted with the practiced ability to enhance further a subject matter, and to include artistic hues and tones forever banishing the "instant drawing" statement, before presenting for our enjoyment and appreciation, truly beautiful art photography that can literally take our breath away.
There are certain photographers who look about them and observe details in the world through lenses that capture brilliant and inspiring hues borrowed from a rainbow's palette.
"Butterfly Cascade"And then there is the Frenchman, Olivier Jollant, who is simply a wizard at infusing chiaruscuro effect with his charmingly wonderful images.
Olivier started his passion with photography at the age of 15 and worked as an assistant photographer in the advertising and fashion industry in Paris until his graduation from school. He then worked photographing paintings and sculptures for catalogs, shooting fashion portrait adverts for young French fashion designers. He also worked for a number of years exclusively with a French fashion designer.
Olivier decided to stop all commercial photographic work temporarily, two years ago, to dedicate and free himself in pursuing the more expressive and purer aspect of Art Photography.
Olivier produces his image generally in monochrome, black and white, and septia, the tones that bring back nostalgia of earlier century photographs. He experiments with new concepts and original ideas to bring an almost illustration-like texture to his photography.
I asked Olivier questions to get his opinion on how he viewed Art Photography and his path in this mode of expression.
"DOG"What inspires you when you decide to take a photograph?
Olivier: When I go out I always have my camera with me so I'm always ready to take pictures even if I can spend several days without taking any shot. I think that I'm the perfect dreamer! I very often wake up remembering beautiful parts of my dreams and very often my body and soul feels the drive and the need for me to express myself in photography. I feel I must move, I must depart to give way for me to channel quickly this drive and need to express. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to draw or paint so I take all these pictures instead.
I am always alone when I work, my body is here but all my soul is in my eyes. My gestures are slow and precise as I try to find subjects and a complimentary method to meet it or him. So I suppose I'm somewhat a beauty hunter with a camera.
I'm very concentrated but strangely, I rarely think at all. It's like a meditation for me and being "zen". I have a huge respect for all the subject and people I meet and capture.
There are many things that inspire me because I am open to everything. I believe that a flower has a sensibility and that it is some one with a vital energy, an aura and a sexual type and energy. So all my still life's pictures are portraits, or self-portraits.
What inspires me? Everything I can work on, to compose and to play with ... even if I take a photograph of a wall, I try to feel the wall's personality and energy, and its sensitivity which should be remember. There are no silly, weird, dirty objects to be photographed if we know about and depend on the artist's sensitivity, intention and technique.
But I never decide to just take a photography. I do it because a subject "talks" to me or to a part of me and because I feel the subject will do well to be photographed as it really is a conversation between it and I. A photo is always a personal hommage to something or someone ... it is a way to make love and to give love."Dark Waters"
I realise you like to work in two tones and rarely in colour, why are you drawn to that kind of presentation?
Olivier: Yes, for several months now I like and I feel the need to work in tones a lot more than in colour, even if I love colour too. It is hard to say why, but I suppose I need to work like that. For me, it is not really "two tones" but more. In tones, there are many tones mixed together. These tones are a personal grammar for me and a way to express myself very clearly.
Working with tones and contrasts is fascinating for me because it is a way to sculpt the reality. The lights and shadows ... and to transform what is nice to something beautiful, it is to erase the appearances of a "mask".
I work with a modern compact digital camera. I also love the very old pictures from the 19th century and old family portraits. I do not intend to mean the "age factor" or the time, but about eternity and the appeal of timeless pictures. For me, every picture needs a precise tone, and I really love to re-invent the colours.
My goal is always to hypnotize the spectator with an "opened" picture ... opened to their imagination. It is a door to myself as an Artist and a man. For me, there is no difference between an Artist and his work. Every picture is a key to discovering me and not just me as Olivier, but as an archetype of a very sensitive human being ... not a man or a woman. Just an Artist."Magic"
What can you explain about the difference for you, in taking commercial photographs for fashion and publication, and taking photographs as an extension and expression of artistic observation?
Olivier: It is great to have an order from a customer but several years ago, I started to feel frustrated with all these things. It was not me and I felt like I was lying to myself.
For example, I worked a lot for a painter's art catalogue, but I knew that my own art was more important than all the things I was doing then. So I started to feel tired and was a little disgusted with my camera and photography.
Now, I have less money but I am free! I lost some of my friends but I am a new friend to myself. And I have a spiritual life so my art is a way for me to talk about it, without words, only with light and shadows.
I love fashion photography, but I want to control everything, to choose the model and to work freely. I do not like fashion in a studio with flashlights, it's nonsense for me. I want to work in daylight with no more than three different models every year. In fact, I'm not working as an artist, I am working to be myself 10,000%.
"My Heart Garden"Do you feel there is a constant and strong challenge in producing the kind of photographs you have?
Olivier: This challenge is only for myself. I am working very hard to find the "perfect" composition, the purest light, the challenge is to find the key to invisibility and the key of love. Also my pictures are a personal representation and somewhat an appeal to be loved. I have already won this part of my personal challenge.
On the web, the challenge with my pictures is to be new and creative every day in French and in English all over the world! To show a good self-portrait, a good photo journalistic shot, a nice still life in the same week is a great challenge and I love that!
What is your vision for the future and your work?
Olivier: I am working so much on my pictures and I create during the day. The best of my work is published at night on the web through three of my websites in France and the world.
I would want to do an exhibition in Paris and in the world later. I need to focus on Art Photography and I want to help other artists too. I feel that's very important for me. I dislike so much the art market, and I feel something has to change. Art, visual art (photography, painting, etc.) need a little revolution. Like what the Punk movement
did for Music history, this new movement will come from the internet, you'll see. It will be just like the Mp3 and the music industry!
I would, of course, like to have more art projects, that's my goal, and to travel.
"Christ's Gardens"==> OLIVIER JOLLANT @ olivierj.canalblog.com
editor@bluemango.tv