Joël Sanguinetti is a French architect and photographer who lives in South of France. In what follows he shares his artistic view and inspiration behind his black and white portrait photography work.
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I’m French and lucky enough to live in South of France. My day job is architecture but I have always loved photography. My grandfather gave me my first camera for Christmas when I was ten, and that sort of present wasn’t common at that time. We did not necessarily have the money to buy film and I remember spending hours taking pictures without film, taking pleasure in framing and composing.
In the past, we had only 12 or 24 photos in film and the result could only be seen 8 to 10 days later. These days, for better or worse, because of the rise of digital photography we are all used to taking unlimited number of photos and are tempted to take pictures without thinking.
I always give a lot of flexibility to my models. Who knows a model or pose better than the models themselves?
I take pictures a bit like I would do a sketch of architecture. In black and white. Always. I think that the black and white photos are not diluted by distraction of colors and that gives space to see photographer’s pure emotion. As a photographer, you can capture the pure emotion in a landscape or setting: the emotion will eventually comes to you, if you wait for it.
I always give a lot of flexibility to my models. Who knows a model or pose better than the models themselves? A model must be confident and show herself as she is. Without this, it is impossible to take pictures with the desired emotion. My only job is to find the time, the place and the outfit that best fits what I want to do, leave the rest to the model and let things happen!
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