Jean-Marc Pharisien. Reliving the Heliographic Mission

All photo enthusiasts are familiar with this mission, a vast public project launched just a few years after heliography was invented. Back in 1851, five photographers set off on a tour of France. Their mission? To create an inventory of our architectural heritage. “I first retraced Edouard Baldus’s route from Paris to Provence, via the Rhône. He was a very interesting photographer because he made assemblages, a method frequently used for panoramic images”, Jean-Marc Pharisien enthuses. He came to settle on the Côte d'Azur because of the light. Jean-Marc worked in his Nice laboratory for Helmut Newton for more than 20 years, but when the famous fashion and nude photographer died, he turned the page on silver photography. Having retraced Baldus's route three times, he decided to travel the routes of the other four, taking almost 600 photos in the process. These days, he likes creating bridges between silver and digital photography.

Maf. A human adventure around the body

Of course, historical humanist photography emerged and spread between the 30s and 60s, so quick to depict everyday scenes, images taken in dialogue with the subject. But perhaps Maf's work is even more targeted — she worked in social services for 30 years before becoming a professional photographer. “It all started with I AM. On the edge of emotions... For this work, I asked a few people to come to the studio, and they told their story while I photographed”, remembers the woman who likes working in the studio with single-source lighting to mark the contrasts, as well as stealing mad moments outside on camera without flash. Sometimes she carries out projects with medico-social institutions on family isolation, age, or disability. And sometimes she photographs the dancer Marie-Pierre Genovese in the corporeality imposed on every living being. Maf articulates the transitory nature of life.

Arié Botbol. A human adventure around the body

Of course, historical humanist photography emerged and spread between the 30s and 60s, so quick to depict everyday scenes, images taken in dialogue with the subject. But perhaps Maf's work is even more targeted — she worked in social services for 30 years before becoming a professional photographer. “It all started with I AM. On the edge of emotions... For this work, I asked a few people to come to the studio, and they told their story while I photographed”, remembers the woman who likes working in the studio with single-source lighting to mark the contrasts, as well as stealing mad moments outside on camera without flash. Sometimes she carries out projects with medico-social institutions on family isolation, age, or disability. And sometimes she photographs the dancer Marie-Pierre Genovese in the corporeality imposed on every living being. Maf articulates the transitory nature of life. 

Lionel Bouffier. Logic and logistics in each stage

“There are some who excel in street or social photography. I'm more specialised in graphic staging that tells a story”, explains Lionel Bouffier, who began with silver monochrome in the world of snow sports. That is how his Urbanité series came into being. “Each time, you have to find the idea, the place, the models and possibly redo the shoot. It sometimes takes two months of work. I like surrealist images in slightly exaggerated lighting, and the anguish of cities after dark”, explains this photo-plastician, who created the Sauvagitude series about nature. For a perfect image, Lionel usually assembles about ten photos, but sometimes he photographs in a single shot. Very attentive to message and aesthetics, he is developing ideas for his latest R-evol-ution series in a minimalist studio setting. Enter: yellow vests, COVID, our social realities.

Dominique Agius. In the light of art history.

“When it comes to photo retouching, it's a must for every sewer”, Dominique Agius says sarcastically. The photographer who spent time at Les Beaux-Arts in Toulon is now head of the DA-Focus photo studio. A specialist in studio photography, he develops a personal project every year: “I did a series on the nude in chiaroscuro, with a fuse in terms of light, then vanities inspired by the baroque masters, before an about-face with Corium, a documentary work on my body envelope in anticipation of my gastrectomy.” This set of cyanotypes, an old photographic process that produces cyan-blue prints, was the subject of an exhibition at Uni-Vers-Photo in Nice in 2019. He adds: “In my new series, on the theme of identity, I wanted an old, slightly textured rendering to come out of the image itself.”