James Franco by Mariano Vivanco [MORE]

gnambox:

DAMIEN BLOTTIERE PHOTOGRAPHER
INTERVIEW by Gnam Box

Impressed by the beauty of his art we decided to interview Damien to find out what’s behind his pieces of art.

When did you start with your art? What’s inspired you?
I draw since I’m a child but being in an Art School I noticed that my talents as a drawer or a painter were limited. I felt unable to properly express myself. The translation from my brain to the result was not satisfactory so I tried to find another way to work. I’ve switched pens and pencils for scissors and started to cut out images from magazines first, then my own.

I’m inspired by my subjects. It is then a subtle task for me to make them mine. I’m fascinated by bodies and I try to go underneath as well as around them. I’m inspired by skin, bones, muscles, shape of face and all the body parts.

damienblottiere.tumblr.com

Tell us about the process of creations of your works
I work with hands, paper, scissors and cutters.

I need to be alone and let my hands start to do their work taking care of what all the others talents (stylist, hair and make up artists, models…) gave me during the shoot. I start on paper remembering what happened. I don’t really plan anything. It’s happening between the model’s images and I. My blade comes on the paper as a caress. It’s really intense, erotic or sensual sometimes…

I feel the way I work is connected to sculpture somehow and its modeling process. A sculpture offers different possible point of view to the viewer which can change depending of the light, your height, the angle you look at it… I try to combine images of different perceptions or point of view. On one picture, I want to show my subject dressed, getting undressed and naked at the same time for example. I try to keep this volume and/or chronologic aspect on the paper and offer another way to read it. I’m probably greedy and unsatisfiable so I need to gather different parts or moment to show what my subject wants me to tell or what I want him to say.

Commons Sense / issue 10 

What’s your concept of beauty?
Beauty doesn’t mean so much. It’s really subjective. It goes with so much other things which are not connected to physical aspects that it is really difficult to define it as aconcept. I truly think beauty is something you can learn anyway.

Nowadays, we’re getting used to a certain type of beauty leads by super retouched pictures from the fashion or beauty industry. And I’m not interested at all by that kind of message. And I don’t feel concern. Those kind of images are supposed to give hopeand dream to people but I feel the opposite. It makes you feel more fat, more old and more ugly, saying: “hey, look what you will never look like!”.

Hopefully, I see beauty in so much other things.

V MAN / decades issue

How many time did you take to do one of your collage?
It depends, it can be few minutes to a day.

Damo Beugly & The Beuglies

You do not use photoshop… Do you think that we are losing manual skills nowadays?
No, I don’t use photoshop. But It happens that my pictures are being retouched after the collage process for printing matters. But not by myself as I’m so bad with computers.

I don’t think we are losing manual skills. But we need to keep looking forward.There is so much different way to express yourself nowadays, we constantly develop new technics and it’s amazing what people can do with computers and softwares in terms of imagery and moving images. It is just a different work. And still, you need talent and creativity behind.

ReBel magazine / issue 3

Are your subjects only people?
People or objects, till now.

Have you ever thought to use different subjects.. like food? :)
No, I didn’t but I could try.

Do you like cooking?
I’m a really bad chef, I don’t even have a proper kitchen.

What’s you favorite dish?
My mum’s “Blanquette de Veau”, a French veal ragout. Delicious.

©Gnam Box

r-mapplethorpe:

Robert at his exposition in the Lawsen DeCelle Gallery, 1978

photo by Rink Foto