I'm testing a new way to communicate about my work...

Hi, Crazy times… No idea where we are currently going through this Covid-19 crisis that seems to be a huge huge pretext to something truly scaring…

So, during these last two months of lock down, I’ve posted many of my photo-journalism pictures and my FB account and this has been a great success… I’m now currently testing a new way to communicate with my pictures and the work I made during years as a photo-journalist (reporter )… I’m also concerned by the fact to protect my photographies that can still be “stolen” on a classic website… So this is what I made as a first test to show my work.

I made this report in 2004 in the gypsies camps of Romania.

Here is the first video…. (évidemment vidéo lamentablement censurée par Youtube parce qu’on doit voir à un moment un enfant en train de se laver dans une bassine… J’imagine que tous les enfants pris en photo lors des famines disparaissent eux aussi… tués une deuxième fois… merci aux bien-pensants de YouTube ; c’est minable.)

Published in Forbes Magazine

http://www.forbes.com/sites/elanagross/2016/11/29/million-dollar-women/#11b5398c3649

Double page Portrait Jerôme Bocuse / Brasserie de l'Est- Lyon, France / Magazine Fly'on Winter 2016

New Magazine Cover - Lyon People November 2016

Last Magazine Cover for Lyon People on Beatrice Collin, Interior Architect...

The "Subway Therapy", the "Love Wall" of Union Square, and the homeless...

Since the results of the elections, and the shock that have been felt by thousands of people, I knew that the people of New York have chosen to express their feelings on the wall of the Union Square Subway tunnel... So, I went there yesterday, thinking that I will find hatred, anger, bitterness and insults notes on theses walls... That is quite the opposite that I've discovered with pleasant surprise... Of course, some of the thousands and thousands of notes are expressing their disappointment about Trump's election, but most of them are about LOVE, fair, resilience... when they are not funny or asking to reopen the case 9/11... That means a lot too...  It seems that "it helps the people to smile, laugh and feel less stress" says the projector creator... 

The only thing that bothered me a bit was seeing a homeless laying on the floor, totally ignored, a few steps away from this ocean of good intentions and will to love his neighbor ... Life is weird, no ? ...

Staying a Child...

My little World...  a part of my NY office that I love... True... you can travel the World, take photographies of the most famous people and stay a child... 

My old Marantz is back (and black !)...

After more than one year, happy to meet again one of my favorite old amplifiers in NewYork, a rare european black version of the Marantz 2252 B... I've coupled it to a Proton 1200... As usual, the sound of Marantz is rich, warm, detailed and perfect for the music I love... You may not believe it, but I can assure you that a 30 or 40 years old amplifier can truly sound better than the new ones... Happy !...  If you want more information about the Marantz 2252 B, here is a link... 

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A nice article about one of my photo speciality : Food Photography...

My first Art Photography exhibition is in New York !

Very proud and honored to get my very first Fine Art Photo Exhibition in New York at the famous New York Design Center... TransForm Gallery, NYDC, 200 Lexington Avenue - Suite 708, NYC

Here is a little movie that I made to show my French friends about the ambiance...

Last Cover Magazine April 2016

Here is the last magazine cover I made - Magazine Lyon People April 2016. The subject was a exclusivity about the grandson of the famous Chef Paul Bocuse. 

Nadar, à propos de la photographie...

Je viens de retrouver un texte de Nadar, l'un des grands inventeurs de la Photographie, texte qui beaucoup marqué car il définit l'essence même du Photographe, et texte qui, plus de 150 après, est toujours autant d'actualité... Absolument incroyable !

"La Photographie est une découverte merveilleuse, une science qui occupe les intelligences les plus élevées, un art qui aiguise les esprits les plus sagaces – et dont l’application est à la portée du dernier des imbéciles. Cet art prodigieux qui de rien fait quelque chose, cette invention miraculeuse après laquelle on peut tout croire, ce problème impossible dont les savants qui le résolvent depuis quelque vingt années en sont encore à chercher le mot, cette Photographie qui, avec l’électricité appliquée et le chloroforme, fait de notre xixe siècle le plus grand de tous les siècles, – cette surnaturelle Photographie est exercée chaque jour par le premier venu et le dernier aussi, car elle a ouvert un rendez-vous général à tous les fruits secs de toutes les carrières. Vous voyez à chaque pas opérer photographiquement un peintre qui n’avait jamais peint, un ténor sans engagement, et de votre cocher comme de votre concierge, je me charge – c’est sérieusement que je parle – de faire en une leçon deux opérateurs photographiques de plus. La théorie photographique s’apprend en une heure ; les premières notions de pratique, en une journée.

Ce qui ne s’apprend pas, je vais vous le dire : c’est le sentiment de la lumière – c’est l’appréciation artistique des effets produits par les jours divers et combinés, – c’est l’application de tels ou tels de ces effets selon la nature des physionomies qu’artiste vous avez à reproduire. Ce qui s’apprend beaucoup moins, c’est l’intelligence morale de votre sujet,  – c’est ce tact rapide qui vous met en communion avec le modèle, vous le fait juger et diriger vers ses habitudes, dans ses idées selon son caractère, et vous permet de donner, non pas banalement et au hasard, une indifférente reproduction plastique à la portée du dernier servant de laboratoire, mais la ressemblance la plus familière et la plus favorable, la ressemblance intime. C’est le côté psychologique de la photographie, le mot ne me semble pas trop ambitieux."

« Profession de foi » de Nadar, dans La Tribune judiciaire (1857), citée par Peeters (Benoît), Les Métamorphoses de Nadar, Auby-sur-Semois, Marot, 1994, p. 44-46.

Test of translation : 

I just found a text from Nadar, one of the great inventors of the Photography, text that marked me a lot during years as it defines the essence of the photographer. This text is, after more than 150 years, still as relevant .. . Absolutely incredible!

"Photography is a wonderful discovery, a science that occupies the highest intelligences, an art that hones the most sagacious minds. - And whose implementation is within reach of the last fools The prodigious art of nothing some thing, this miraculous invention after which we can all believe that impossible problem that scientists who solve the past twenty years are still looking for the word that this Photography with applied electricity and chloroform, because of our nineteenth century the greatest of all ages. - this supernatural Photography is exercised every day by the first comer and the last too, as she opened a general rendezvous to all dried fruit every career you see at every step photographically operate a painter who had never painted a tenor without commitment, and your check as your concierge, I undertake - this is serious I speak - to make a lesson more two photographic operators. The photographic theory is learned in an hour; the first notions of practice in a day.

What is not learned, I'll tell you: it is the feeling of light - is the artistic appreciation of the effects of day and various handsets - is the application of this or of these effects depending on the nature of the faces an artist you have to reproduce. It is learned that much less is the moral intelligence of your subject - this is fast tact that puts you in communion with the model, you made the judge and head to his habits, his ideas according to his character, and you can give, not banal and random, indifferent plastic reproduction to reach the final for laboratory, but the most familiar and most favorable likeness, the close resemblance. It's the psychological side of photography, the word does not seem too ambitious. "

April 2016...

Finally time has came for me to update this website that I've let few years without news and new pictures... What a pity ! But, Yes !... Life is definitively not a "quiet river"... Some events have happened and are still happening that have deeply changed my life and the way to see it, the direction to give it... 2016 is going to be a special year : for the very first time since years, I've decided to show my work and accept an exhibition... I will let you know more in the next weeks.. Be prepared ! Let's play another musical partition ! :)

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Last Magazine Cover + 6 pages with Jean Michel Aulas, Lyon People December 2015

Last publication with the cover of the magazine Lyon People and 6 pages of article on the new Lyon Football Club President and his very new amazing stadium...

Proud of my last Magazine Cover with Tony Parker - Lyon People

Last Cover with the famous Tony Parker - 4 pages of article.

Totally crazy about hi-fi... and new at home...

Music is more than a passion... Let's say that it is essential to my life... Most of the time, I love to listen acoustic music,  French songs with just very fews instruments... The voice is the most important... Nothing electric... Unplugged music is really what I prefer...  I love cello and of course J.S. Bach, but Mozart and Vivaldi are, according to me, two fantastic genius composers with a particular note for Mozart, that I consider like THE absolute genius !... I also like Chopin, as I love the rythm of the blues from Mississippi with these incredibles voices coming from nowhere.. I love E. Clapton and Musica Nuda, and of course, Jazz...  but if I had to keep only one album with me on a desert island, this will be, without any hesitation, the Album of the Concert at Central Park of Simon & Garfunkel. I've spent all my teenage years listening to it.. and that is also certainly one of the reason I'm now living in New York...

I've discover Hi-fi almost by chance, when I found in the street, (it was Charlton Street) an old Denon amplifier and above all two Mission Speakers... Magic...  But to listen to good music on a bad equipment could be just considered as a crime... This is one of my last purchase... An old dream... An audiophile Onkyo M-504 amplifier... This should arrive this week and will be coupled with a Nad 712 and some amazing speakers... I can't tell more for the moment... :)

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​The incredible W meters of the Onkyo m-504

A book that speaks to me....

I've recently found this book in the little book bookstore of Carmine Street, and, I don't know why, but this cover talked to me a lot and just made want to get my motorcycle and take the road... :) ​

​I really stopped seeing this cover... Oh my God ! why this book is taking so deeply to me ?

Wayne and his cello...

Found in the middle of the crowd in the subway between 42 st Port Authority and Times Sq 42, Wayne Smith is really a high level cellist who gives so much emotions playing with his old cello J.S. Bach...