A lot of people categorized me as a dance photographer. I can't blame them because I still work regularly with dancers and more than 70% of my work has been dedicated to them. From classical ballet to hip hop, I still love creating and imagining new scenes with dancers. But at the beginning of this year, I was craving for more and didn't want to be only considered as a dance photographer.
So I started to diversify my activity and my work started to slowly open itself to new other projects. Crossfitters have crossed my way earlier this year, fitness competitors, and pole dancers again recently. But this year's biggest discovery for me was the circus world.
The possibilities of creation with these artists are infinite! I loved the experience so much that I even started a new gallery on my Facebook page. Let's go back in time together and see how it all started.
Nhật-Nam Lê and Paul Herzfeld - Pont St Martin à Strasbourg
Alba Faivre is a Chinese pole artist and is the first circus performer who accepted to follow me on this crazy adventure. I needed a unique view of the city. A friend had a huge balcony and I thought it would be great to do something up there. The hardest part was to convince my friend to let us install a 14 feet Chinese pole for our shoot. After a short negotiation, she kindly accepted, and we were up to her building at 5 am under 5° a few weeks later to make our pictures.
Alba Faivre - Strasbourg, February 2015
Nhật-Nam Lê is an alien, trust me... The 1st picture was an idea that I had in mind for weeks and I thought that nobody would be up for it. Nhât is also a Chinese pole specialist and he did not hesitate a second for this one. I often have to hold him back when we work together.
The same goes for picture number 2! Although I stated that the best solution was to get the proper authorizations for a shoot in a previous blog post, since we were outside and only making a few shots, I preferred playing hide and seek with the police. For the last 2, I still don't know which one I prefer. We shot the night version first and, a few weeks later, I asked Nhât to make another version during the day... Which one do you prefer?
Nhật-Nam Lê - Strasbourg March 2015
I had the chance to meet Edouard Doye and Virginia Danh for an improvised photo session around town. No pressure, just having fun, trying stuff in the wild.
Virginia Danh and Edouard Doye - Strasbourg, April 2015
Montreal has a strong circus community and amazing artists. I couldn't miss the chance to meet a few of them when I was there. Thanks to Edouard Doye, I met this beautiful Duo :
Charlotte O'sullivan & Nicolas Jelmoni - Charlotte's apartment in Montréal, June 2015
Nicolas gave me my first experience with the Cyr Wheel, and I must admit that it wasn't easy :
And before I left Montreal, thanks to Nicolas and Charlotte, we set up a quick session with the beautiful contortionist Nicole.
Nicole Winter - Centre du commerce mondial Montréal, June 2015
Amongst all my crazy ideas, one of them was simple... Set up that massive 14-feet Chinese pole inside the bibliothèque nationale universitaire de Strasbourg (BNU). It started as a joke, became a fantasy, and finally became a reality. I dedicated a full blog post to this project :
This is only the beginning! My last experience with circus performers was with Fabian. We missed each other in Montreal and got the chance to finally meet in Strasbourg during a short afternoon.
Fabian Galouÿe - Strasbourg, August 2015
A lot of projects are on hold right now, I hope that I will be able to realize them in 2016. I just can't wait! A huge thanks to all these amazing artists that have worked with me so far... Thanks for trusting me, thanks for making the pictures beautiful!