- Could you introduce yourself in a few words ?
I am Violaine Carrère, a young 25 year-old bipolar photographer (laughs). I work in phases, first in extreme colors and then I get a powerful urge for white and monochrome. I am passionate about paper and I drop everything for plastic ! By turns I’m deep down into painting, graphics, photography, design…
I try to make it all hang together so as not to lose my head! Regarding my career, I went to the ECV, a visual communication school, then to the Gobelins to study photography. Today I work in my studio in the 18th of Paris, and I’m focussing on photography after working two short years in parallel on my concept store project Le White, where I select only the white works of artists and designers.
- Where does your interest in photography come from ?
It comes from an early interest in art in general, when I was very young; my grandmother was a painter and she taught me many painting techniques, with pastels, etc. That allowed me to sharpen my eye and better enjoy creating. And we can also talk about my father, whose passion is photography, when I was young he showed me the studio photos he took of my mother when they met and he talked to me about his techniques for softening and blurring, and he read a lot of poetry to me to get me to sleep when I was little. I am fortunate to have a family that awakened me to all this creative ferment.
- What are your inspirations ?
I am inspired more by painting and design. I do a lot of shoots at exhibitions, even when I’m not a fan of the artist; I like to be open to different worlds from mine, I think that is what nourishes my work.
At the moment, I’m also trying to make a point of collecting everything that has marked me aesthetically so far and all the things I created repeatedly through the years. I found a lot of multiple self-references there, reflections, hesitations, and fixations on precise compositions. It’s very interesting to do this. Sometimes too the inspiration will come from a feeling, an emotion, or a novel that has affected me and so I want to transcribe it visually using my own means. Like many creatives, I use this as a way to express what we dare not say in words.
- What is your favorite photo ?
Being a big fan of Guy Bourdin, I would choose one of his. But I can’t say I have a favorite photo in particular. Probably one of his pictures where the character is off-frame. These offset frames, I love them, and then the strange poses he uses while still keeping it glamorous, I find that exactly to my taste. I also like a lot of pictures by Horst P. Horst, Blumenfeld, John Rawlings.
- What are your future projects ?
In the next little while I will focus on photographic projects only, some new personal series are in preparation, and there’ll be some new shoots for creators and exhibitions.
My next exhibition will be at Experience the Art Fair at Jacques Bonsergent from 28 November to 5 December, there will be 69 artists including me, it will be my first big group show, and I’m looking forward to it! I will also have my first publication in an art book in 2016 … I will say more about that later.
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