HOTEL

I have been working for L'Oréal 12 hours a day for the last 3 days. I lived in a nice hotel of the 20eme arrondissement, designed by Philippe Starck, spent time with a group of very creative kids, and worked a lot. It was the first time I was shooting for such a big company; basically documenting an event (a creative contest) they organized. The images here are part of what I gave them in the end. During these 3 days I understood something: it would be impossible for me to photograph something/someone only because I was asked to. I need to need it too, inside. So, I never used a flash even though I almost always shot in super low light conditions -because I think flashes make ugly images, and that photographers with big flashes bother people. I only shot what I felt like shooting, what I needed to photograph; I refused to insist when people were not comfortable; I refused to photograph things that were not interesting to me -to my eyes. I refused to produce "clean" images, refused to let go of blurred, darker images. I was given quite a lot of freedom and if sometimes it wasn't enough, I took the space I needed to work. In the end I understood something very important: I started photography to change my life, and giving up my own vision in the very context of photography would be worse than anything for me. Like the absolute renunciation... So thank you Cédric for letting me express myself, and for trusting me.