Romain Berger

Freedom

I am Romain Berger, an openly queer photographer from the French scene, born at the end of the 80s in Normandy.

With a background in film and theatre, I have long been fascinated by images, popular culture, stereotypes and gender issues.

My work is very important to me, I have a lot of things to tell, in a very positive way and I try to make mentalities change at my humble level.

I am also an art director, I build my photographs from A to Z (theme, decor, lighting, casting, shooting, retouching etc…). My past artistic experiences are very present in my creations, like cinema for example.

Since last January, several magazines have devoted articles or interviews to me: Garçon magazine in France, The Advocate in the United States, MGT in Canada, The MYP, Männer, Schwulissimo and soon Juturna in Germany and this week the Spanish media Belfusto. In addition, last February I won second place in the Best Gay Photographer 2021 competition. As an artist, this is really rewarding and gives me a lot of strength to continue.

It is difficult for me to talk about each work independently. Indeed, my work is a whole. Each creation tells a story, but the whole tells a struggle.

My works are meant to be offbeat, kitschy, excessively colourful, sexually sprinkled and inspiring. A world revisited, fantasized, openly queer/feminist and also gently provocative.

My characters are marginalized, excluded or singled out (gays, women, transsexuals, drag queens…) who, for a single shot, become heroes/fighters. Most of my protagonists are men whom I like to sexualise. Why do I do this? Simply to divert the codes and because I think that art should surprise, amaze, shock but also excite.

Moreover, I work a lot on weariness and the body. The body is everywhere on social networks and in magazines, it becomes, for many, an addiction to the race for perfection and this allows me, in my photographs, to gently sexualize the bodies of men.

Sensuality is present in each of my pictures, I like to fantasize the world, to put the finger on what disturbs and especially, I want to make people dream. A shared voyeurism.

It was important for me to keep the magic in my stagings, to trivialise homosexuality and to affirm my identity, while bringing strong messages, without falling into pathos or melodrama with dull colours.

Romain Berger

Photographer – Art Director