Portrait of Paquerette, my adoptive mother. Little aunt.
I started my series of portraits fifteen years ago, with that of one of my adoptive moms. These are the origins.
Her name was Marguerite Brochard, and everyone called her Aunt Daisy.
She was a former nun, “little sister of the poor”. She had been forced to stop her vocation because she was too fragile to bear the hard life of the convent.
This portrait I did for her 90th birthday.
The central portrait of this triptych is a black and white photograph, made with a 4X5 camera, of Marguerite on the day of her 90th birthday, the two side panels are done in pencil, freehand. These drawings depict me, with volutes of thoughts escaping from my brain.
Portrait of Andrée Putman
Andrée poses marvelously well, she gives the photographer the time he needs.
In the middle of the shooting, we make a break. She is served tea in a large mug, she raises it, and I can see the brand Habitat, for a great designer: it’s funny!
I continue to photograph with a Hasselblad for more fluidity during this break. She puts down her mug, picks up a tissue and dabs her lips, then throws out the handkerchief.
The session ends, I admire her and am very touched by what she gave me today. Thanks Andrée …
I came back to the studio, went past the trash can and my eyes fell on the handkerchief on which the red of her lips had left a trace. I seized it and decided to photograph it.
But before I threw some big pins on the handkerchief and shot it!
That’s the most piquant smile in Paris.
Portrait of Natalia Vodianova
At a party I meet Natalia by chance, and I really wanted to photograph her.
To my great joy she accepted and we made an appointment.
Before the shooting, I phoned Natalia and asked her if she has memories, or an object of her childhood, after searching, she sent me photos of her as a child , and going to school in Russia.
I chose photographs of her, as a child. The documents were small, I decided to redraw them in large format freehand.
In these documents I chose to redraw a Natalia class picture, this drawing is the first part of the diptych.
Inside this drawing, I added a few details, one of which is a space car, toy of the Eastern countries dating from the 1950s.
The second part of this diptych is the portrait of Natalia I made in the studio. Next to her the ghost of one of the monkeys with which she played during her childhood. A shade of blue asuarella on the t-shirt of the animal recalls the nuance of her eyes.
