Where does your photography come from?
Gabriel de La Chapelle : That’s a deep psychological question. What pushed me towards photography? To freeze time and present it in two dimensions. Composition is what gives me the most pleasure. One composes with the light and the subject. Whatever they are and however it turns out, those are the two elements one works with.
When is the decisive moment for you?
G. C : Is it, as Cartier-Bresson says, “putting one’s head, eye and heart on the same axis?” In any case, it’s certain that the moment involves a large amount of uncertainty, and that uncertainty is what makes photography so fragile and endearing.
What inspired your series?
G. C :For the series Los Angeles, I decided to spend two months in city, trying to create typology of the faces one sees in the city’s different neighborhoods. In the East, I photographed hippies, trendy partygoers, cowboys in seedy bars. In the West: fake blondes, leading men, and other unidentified creatures, all under the multi-colored, flashing lights of the jetset villas. Two aspects of a sprawling city.
Read the full interview with Gabriel de la Chapelle on the French version of L’Oeil de la Photographie.
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