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The young Belgian photographer signs the visual of this new edition of the Salon de la Photo
After Brice Portolano last year, it was Charlotte Abramow's turn to take her photographer's look at the Salon de la Photo for the poster for the 2018 edition.
Charlotte Abramow was born in Belgium in 1993. At age 7, she enjoys taking pictures of her friends in the disposable playground, then began at 13 years to become passionate about the image. At the age of 15, Charlotte is photographing her friends, then teenage girls who inspire her, each time creating a little story. At the age of 16, she met Paolo Roversi during an internship at the Rencontres d'Arles. The following year, Paolo Roversi wrote an article about Charlotte's images, entitled "The fragility and the soul of a warrior" published in Polka Magazine in 2011. This meeting reinforces Charlotte in the idea of making her passion, his job. Her images circulate so much among the circles of high school girls and reach the moms, who sometimes work in the fashion world. At the age of 17, at the same time as high school, Charlotte began doing various works for magazines and young Belgian brands, and a few years later made the cover of Elle Belgium.
In 2013, at the age of 19, the Belgian moved to Paris to study at Gobelins, L'École de l'Image. Her work won the Picto Prize for Young Fashion Photography in 2014. Charlotte graduated in June 2015 and is a finalist at the Rencontres d'Arles Photo Folio Review Awards a month later. She exposes her project on breast diversity "The Real Boobs" during the Night of the Year of Encounters. Since 2014, his work focuses mainly on the relationship to the body and the stages of life, and staged the elements in an absurd way in a world tinged with surrealism.
Charlotte is currently working on the construction of the "Projet Maurice" book and exhibition, which brought together 777 contributors to crowdfunding on Kickstarter. The project, which has not yet been released, receives wide media coverage and a Special Mention at the Folio Review Awards of the Rencontres d'Arles in 2017. At the same time, another project of reportage is also emerging. The photographer meets the inhabitants of the Faroe Islands and builds a creative portrait with them. Named "They Love Trampoline", this project bringing together photos and making-of video of the trip, will soon be published. At 24, Charlotte takes her first steps as a director with "The Law of Murphy" and "I Want Your Eyes" for the Belgian singer Revelation Angela. Both clips, neat and absurd, meet a success on the web. She also made the first official Georges Brassens video "Les Passantes" on the occasion of the International Women's Rights Day, released on March 8, 2018. This visual poem encounters strong reactions on the web, and is censored for a few hours. through the YouTube platform.
Whatever the medium and the subject, Charlotte has the leitmotiv to tell the human poetic and metaphorical. Soon 10 years of sharing his images on the net have allowed the artist to bring together a beautiful community.
Exhibitions
2015
"BYO PAPER: The Real Boobs" collective exhibition during the Rencontres d'Arles Night of the Year
Collective exhibition "Autismes, regards" at the Maison des Métallos, Paris
Collective exhibition "The Timeless of Agnès b. At the European House of Photography, Paris
2012
Group show at Brussels Fashion Days
Awards
2017: Special Mention for "Maurice Project" at the Photo Folio Review Awards of the Rencontres d'Arles
2015: Finalist of the Photo Folio Review Awards of the Rencontres d'Arles
2014: Winner of the Picto Prize for Young Fashion Photography
2013: Finalist of the Picto Prize for Young Fashion Photography
2011: Winner of the Weekend Photo Awards
Interview
Can you summarize your career in a few steps?
I started taking pictures at the age of 13, it was very experimental at first, I was doing my hand.
From the age of 15, I made portraits of my friends, then I organized shootings with faces that inspired me, I took care of the styling, the makeup, the hairstyle, the decor, with the means of the edge. ...
When I was 16, I met Paolo Roversi during an internship at the Rencontres d'Arles and that gave me the confidence and the strength to decide to do my job.
The following year, I started to do some work for magazines and young Belgian brands, and I was given the cover of ELLE Belgium in 2013. The same year, I moved to Paris to study at Gobelins, the School of Image. In 2014, I received the Picto Award for Young Fashion Photography. I graduated from the Gobelins and I had the honor of having my project "The Real Boobs" exhibited during the Night of the Year at the Rencontres d'Arles in 2015.
I made my first steps in video with two clips for the Belgian singer Angèle in 2017, and I made the first clip of Georges Brassens "Les Passantes" in 2018.
Did you know the Salon de la Photo before being presented by Fisheye in the 2017 Zooms contest? Did you go to the show in 2017?
Of course, I knew the Salon de la Photo, which is an important event in the French photographic world. I did not have the opportunity to go there in 2017 because the dates coordinate with the birthday of my mother that I come then to celebrate in Belgium ... Not always practical!
Where did you get inspiration for this photo? What message should be seen behind?
I was inspired by the fact that as a photographer, I often contort myself in every way to find the right angle to my image. Finding the correctness to the frame sometimes requires sacred body positions ... From the outside, it makes my teams laugh a lot. I found it interesting to explore this track as a "private joke" for photographers. It also allowed me to explore the body language that is an integral part of my larger work. There is also an idea of creation, of freedom, of spontaneity in search of the image in the moment of the shooting. The poses of the models, which come from the world of dance, become almost romantic and bring a little magic to the whole. Beyond the image, which is the result, life is also expressed in the act of photographing. I liked this idea of proliferation of characters, which joins the proliferation of ideas, the euphoria, the passion of the photographer, like an effervescence.
Can you tell us the shots, reveal us behind the scenes of this photo?
The shooting was very neat, musical and spontaneous, where we experienced all kinds of contortions that were sublimated by the experience, flexibility and interpretation of both models. Leo Walk and Fanny Sage are both dancers, and they each brought their choreographic universe to the shoot.
Fanny is incredibly supple and vivacious, she really lives her dance with passion, in very lively gestures, and dances more with the camera that she then considered as a partner, an alter ego.
Leo's greatest friend is the soil. He is a breakdance pro and his challenge was to find his support while holding the camera in front of his face. Leo is always looking for truly creative, expressive and new movements, and what I love most about him is his taste and his quest for improbability.
Both took part in the images, thinking as and when photos to go further, to be more expressive while putting the object in value.
Can you tell us about your projects?
I just released a series, "Find Your Clitoris" that visually explores the theme of female sexual pleasure, which is still rather taboo in our society. I think it's important to talk about these things because it's a subject that needs to be known to just exist!
A project realized in June 2017, "They Love Trampoline", should be released before this summer. It is a series on the meeting of the inhabitants of the Faroe Islands to create with them a staging and an absurd portrait. Humor is a very interesting ingredient to make contact with strangers and share a great time together. While creating images. Maybe it was time that I put myself in an exercise that was that of improvisation, while keeping the staging in a creative collaboration with the inhabitants, who were sometimes baffled, amused, but always motivated!
Otherwise, I'm working mainly on my biggest current project, which is the "Mauritius Project" which will culminate in a book and an exhibition. It's a project about my 85-year-old father who has gone through cancer and coma that left him with neurological sequelae. Over time, and despite the rather negative predictions of recovery, he went better, began to re-express, relive, etc ... This unexpected revival inspired me this project, although he is a particular character today partly in reality, partly on his little planet. To bring a new look at the disease, hope in the trauma. I realized a Kickstarter in 2016 in order to raise funds to realize images in decorations conceived especially on the basis of its history, with costumes, games of lights, ... and in order to build a book. Work in progress!