SOMETHING IN THE EYES…
Solitude: A word that frightens, synonymous with sadness, expectation, feelings of abandonment, exclusion, failure, depression.
Solitude, however, may be chosen by some and suffered by others; in the latter case it is linked to a situation of exclusion and social isolation. Several recent studies attest to the increase of this situation at a global level. This loneliness will be even more evident in an overcrowded urban environment: One is alone in the midst of the crowd.
How can loneliness be illustrated through photography? Many have tried more or less well, with the pretension of denouncing this phenomenon. Photographing a man or a woman walking alone in the street is not enough. For my part, I prefer to capture an attitude, an expression on the face, “that something in the look” where one perceives a feeling of sadness, disillusionment and resignation that attests to the inevitability of his or her condition.
I started to photograph at the age of 15 with an old AGFA SILETTE-L camera that my father gave me. What drives me above all is curiosity about everything.
After training as a black & white printer at the ECPA (Etablissement Cinématographique et Photographique des Armées), during my National Service, I discovered the world of press photography by successively joining the black & white laboratories of Gamma Presse Image, Sipa Press, then Roger-Viollet where I also learned the difficult exercise of editing. At the same time, I continue to make images, reports as well as portrait and still life studio shots.
Jean-Christophe Clamagirand
