Malo is a photograph artist, who puts his work at the service of a story… Through his photo series, he questions life, family, society, in a way that moves people, and don’t leave them unconcerned
RC. Can you introduce yourself in a few lines ?
My name is Malo. I'm an ex-D.A. I've been a graphic designer for over 20 years. My job was to be creative, to imagine and conceive visuals for cultural events posters or record covers, for exemple the Parc de la Villette, Paris Museums, the Paris City Hall, Indochine, Patricia Kaas, Manu Lanvin... and today I devote myself exclusively to photography. As a photographer, my work is divided in two sections : one as an artist with my personal projects exhibited in art galleries and the other one, as an advertising photographer for various brand campaigns. I am also a "Fujifilm and Epson ambassador".
RC. How do you get your creative ideas ?
For my personal projects, I work on the relationships between people and mainly on the façade that people may present at first sight as well as pretences. I like to distort images of people or shift a character and a situation to get a purpose. Anyway I have a rather illustrative job. Ideas come and go, as I always say, an idea is not much, it is fuzzy. But, as soon as you get an image of it, you can make it. And for this, I use all the references of my chilhood. They are photographic of course, but also cinematographic, literary ; they come from painting, sculpture, and most of them from the comics world I grew up with.
RC. what's your favorite projet ?
It's hard to tell. But in short, it's always the last one until the next one ! • One day my child you will be ! It deals with parents' fantasy about their children's future, • The ordinary life of an invisible man Deals with a family in the 1950s and the father's absence who provides for the needs and comfort of his family without exchanging and sharing with them. • Life in a castle The series features two young lords dressed with big cat heads which represent the projection they have of themselves. • Vantas vanitatum. Omnia Vanitas ! It is a modern vanity showing a penitent and decadents. • "Sans Dessus Dessous" Deals with the weight of convention and good education as a concrete block. • In the mood for black and the Mourners Series on the atmosphere of drug-induced euphoria and the Spleen de Paris from Baudelaire, • Animality A series on the same theme as "life in a castle" previewed with Fujifilm's GFX100, • Divers In the "divers" section of my web site, you can see several offbeat photos that I had much fun to shot. In hindsight, I don't regret any of my series.
RC. How do you work ?
For each of my series, I search at the same time : the place (if it's outside a studio), the scenery (accessory furniture..., I also hunt for second-hand goods); the models and the team who is pretty much always the same. I'm lucky to work with extremely competent and talented people :-) Once I find the place, I check out the locations. I take pictures of each room, note the exposure and the hours of sunshine, then, based on the script of the series I wrote beforehand, I make a work plan with all the necessary information for the shooting days. Day 1: shot 1,2,3,4, - Day 2: shot 1,2... this time, this scene, this style, this hairstyle and so on...
RC. Could you share technical tips with us ?
I don't really have any technical tips to share, but one advice : when you want to carry out an ambitious project, do not bridle yourself and never give up at the first disappointment during the preparation. You just have to adapt to it.
RC. Do you have any coming plans ?
I currently exhibit at Galerie Bettina at 2 rue Bonaparte 75006 Paris.
