Born in 1968, Sébastien Cailleux discovered photography when he became an adult, encouraged by a 1948 Leica M3, given to him by his grandfather. Straightaway it became his passion and very quickly his vocation. Trained at the CFPJ (Centre de formation professionnelle des journalistes) in journalism as a reporter-photographer, it was in the show business milieu that he started his career… before taking on in depth news features , going for extended periods to Asia, Africa and America. Passion for photography, for him it’s above all a passion for other people. Each assignment becomes a global experience, a cultural and humane immersion. In 2009, Sébastien Cailleux founded the École d’art au village (Edaav), an educational, cultural and artistic organisation, whose aim is to make the world’s children sensitive to the discovery of their heritage and to practice art.
What does photography represent for you?
The more I reflect on it, the more it seems to me that it is impossible to define it in one word. In my opinion, photography is a reflection on light, a harnessing of space and time. It represents a memory of sensitivity.
Why did you choose this medium?
I still ask myself if it’s not rather that photography chose me… I perceive the world around me through the prism of photography
How do you get the colours of your images?
I get my colours in the same way as a painter, by playing with the shades. The luminous intensity and the reflective surface are the primary materials. The lens, its depth of field the sensitivity of the emulsion and the exposure time are my tools, that I use a little like a paintbrush. My colours vary. They change with the weather and the times, From the density and depth in my youth, they have faded little by little so that today they have a fluid lightness.
Why the double exposures?
I prefer to talk about “multi-exposures”. In my photography, this path is, above all, poetic. It allows me to transcend the real and create an intimate connection between my imagination and the things that surround me.
In a world invaded by images, what is a photographer?
The images which invade our world have, above all. A purpose of whish we are not all aware. Their primary objective is to sell. The photographer writes the story with light. It’s not enough just to write in order to be a writer. It’s the same for photography. It’s not enough just to make an image to be a photographer.
Is there a time that you would have liked to photograph?
These days I use a series of hundred-year-old cameras. With them, I look at the contemporary world and I amuse myself with it. I call this process, “Timeless Photography”.
How would you advise a photographer who is just beginning?
To see with the heart.
Is photography the carrier of a message? If so, what would yours be?
Photography is the carrier of a language. The message comes instead from the person who reads it.
