Flore : The Quest for Memory
After working for the national press FLORE is now exclusively dedicated to her personal work. Winner in 2018 of the Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière Photography Award in partnership with the Académie des beaux-arts, she carries out her work over the long term. Travel inspires her.
Through refined technical interventions the artist shapes as much as she restores the world that unfolds before her eyes to make unique images that depart from conventional photographic reality.
Totally committed to the quest for memory, Flore creates “non-sensational” images that attempt to recreate the truth in place of a reality that is gradually fading away.
Her paternal grandmother used to tell her a lot of stories that, when she was little, seemed exotic and fed her imagination.
Today, her universe is dreamlike, poetic and timeless. Far from any nostalgia, her work tinged with melancholy questions the status of the image in our contemporary societies. Through her images, she tries to propose an alternative to the torments of the world by inviting the spectator to enter her singular world.
What she likes is the ability of photography to make us travel in time, and as the world has become very small, we can easily travel, but traveling in time remains quite mysterious. The power of photography to make images of a previous time, to stretch time, to make us dream, interests him.
His works have been acquired and exhibited in various prestigious institutions such as the Musée du Petit Palais, the BnF, the MMP+ in Marrakech or the Mémorial de Rivesaltes.
Website : www.flore.ws
Instagram : florephotographe
Your first photographic trigger ?
FLORE: The first prints that my father helped me make in his classroom improvised as a lab. I was eight years old. It was magical to see the image appear in the developer. It has remained so.
Who was the man or woman who inspired you?
FLORE: Josef Sudek.
The image that you have not yet realized and that you would like to realize?
FLORE: Something that hasn’t occurred to me yet.
The one that moved you the most?
FLORE: A landscape by Jean- Michel Fauquet. The print was so beautiful that it brought tears to my eyes.
The one that made you angry?
FLORE: Every picture that shows injustice and violence in the world makes me angry. My indignation is intact.
A photographic memory from your childhood?
FLORE: In the morning, our fathers, uncles, and brothers would emerge from the water like streaming Triton, fish in one hand, harpoon in the other.
The sun was setting, now, red and slow, on golden women, a dozen free children, hairy and smiling men. All were adorned with necklaces of shells. A great bouillabaisse was simmering over the wood fire on this deserted Corsican beach.
My family and I were guests of Jacky Biancarelli, his wife Claire and his wonderful tribe. It was tender and generous.
With no budget limit, what would be the work you would dream of acquiring?
FLORE: If there is no budget limit, can I have two small ones? One is too hard. That would be Nicolas de Stael’s “The road” 1954 and Gustav Klimt’s Judith. But there are so many other wonders…
According to you, what is the necessary quality to be a good photographer?
FLORE: Stubbornness in the work.
The secret of the perfect image, if it exists?
FLORE: The very idea seems both absurd and distressing to me (laughs).
The person you would like to photograph if you had the opportunity?
FLORE: Marguerite Duras, as a teenager.
An essential photo book?
FLORE: A Miroslav Tichy, to keep in mind the concept of freedom in creation.
The camera of your childhood?
FLORE: A Nikon FM2.
The one you use today?
FLORE: Today, today a Mamiya 7II
Your favorite drug?
FLORE: Love.
The best way to disconnect for you?
FLORE: An island lost in the sun with my lover.
What is your relationship with the image?
FLORE: Absolutely, it’s like I’m back in Carmel (laughs).
What do you see when you see your reflection in a mirror?
FLORA: A loved woman.
Your greatest quality?
FLORE: Empathy.
Your latest folly?
FLORE: A print by Katrien de Blauwer at Les Filles du Calvaire.
An image to illustrate a new banknote?
FLORE: I don’t really care, as long as it doesn’t change the inequalities in the world.
The job you would not have liked to do?
FLORE: Not working. Seeing the price of my life every month on the paycheck, what a horror.
What are the differences between photography and art photography?
FLORE: I find this expression unfortunate. It sounds like sports photographer, fashion photographer and art photographer? Do we say art printmaker?
Sometimes there is an artist whose medium is photography. The difference is there.
The city, the country or the culture that you dream to discover?
FLORE: Japan. It is a culture whose mysteries fascinate me.
The place you never get tired of?
FLORE: My studio.
Your biggest regret?
FLORE: Not having met my partner before.
In terms of social networks, are you rather Instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok or Snapchat and why?
FLORE: I’m not a fan of social networks that I find alienating and time consuming but if you have to live with the times, Instagram which still gives pride of place to the still image.
Color or B&W?
FLORE: Both with joy.
Daylight or artificial light?
FLORE: Daylight. The light of the world.
What do you think is the most photogenic city?
FLORE: Paris, New York or Saigon, in the 30s.
If God existed, would you ask him to pose for you, or would you opt for a selfie with him?
FLORE: I’m an atheist, but if God existed I would be tempted to ask him for an account of the state of the world rather than take a picture of him.
If I could organize your ideal dinner, who would be at the table?
FLORE: Robert Capa, for a tête à tête.
The image that represents for you the current state of the world?
FLORE: The Citarum River in Indonesia, covered in garbage.
What is missing in today’s world?
FLORE: Humanity.
If you had to start over?
FLORE: I would do it all over again…but this time I would like to have a teacher to accompany me instead of learning on my own.
