Liliroze: Between impression and sensory memory
Liliroze graduated from ENS Louis Lumière in 1997, and established herself in the contemporary photography scene with a singular approach, where light and the materiality of images become vectors of emotion. Her work, profoundly sensory, rejects the mere reproduction of reality: it seeks to capture the essence of sensations, impressions, and memories, as if photography were an extension of bodily and emotional memory.
Drawing inspiration from pictorialist photographers and contemporary masters such as Paolo Roversi and Sarah Moon, Liliroze develops a universe that is at once poetic and mysterious, where figures and textures overlap to create a dreamlike atmosphere. Natural light, subtle and nuanced, is her main tool: it sculpts forms, modulates tones, and gives each image an aura beyond mere descriptive vision. Her work addresses recurring themes — the female body, sensuality, sensory memory — always in a tension between the visible and the invisible, between tangible materiality and fleeting impression. The bodies she photographs are never mere objects of desire or formal aesthetics; they become sites of memory and reflection, carrying fragility and presence.
Represented by Galerie Carole Decombe in Paris, Liliroze has established her photographic language through demanding exhibitions and a coherent editorial work. Her series such as Life, Still-Life, Wanderings, Films, and Magic by LiLiROZE consistently explore photography’s capacity to transcend reality and provoke an intense emotional experience in the viewer. She also stands out for a poetic rigor combined with a critical perspective on photographic tradition and history. She operates at the intersection of intimate memory and aesthetic artifice, offering images that are fragments of a reinvented reality, always on the border between dream and lived experience. Her commitment notably through her Instagram presence and initiatives to promote women photographers complements her artistic approach, asserting the place of sensitivity and rigor in a contemporary photographic field often dominated by immediacy.
Website: www.liliroze.com
Instagram : @lilirozeofficiel
Current News: Her photographic series Aux Oiseaux is being presented as part of the 10th edition of the Objectif FEMMES festival, a Parisian event dedicated to promoting women photographers. This exhibition will take place from November 12 to 23, 2025, at the Mairie of the 9th arrondissement of Paris, under the high patronage of the Ministry of Culture.
Your first photographic trigger?
Liliroze : Seeing my father making prints in our bathroom.
A photographic memory from your childhood?
Liliroze : A black-and-white photo taken by my father. I must have been six, with my cousin on an old well under the shade of a lilac tree, playing lost children. That photo contains all my childhood. It’s the image that made me want to take up photography.
Your childhood camera?
Liliroze : I started with my father’s old Minolta SLR before having my first Nikon.
The camera you use today?
Liliroze : I worked for a long time with a 4×5 Sinar view camera and Polaroid films, but when production stopped, I went back to Nikon. I’m currently looking for the next one.
The image-maker who inspired you?
Liliroze : Not surprisingly, I would say Sarah Moon.
A photograph you wish you had taken?
Liliroze : An image by Gilles Roudière from his series What are these mountains dreaming about? (Albania 2010–2012). I discovered it on a postcard: a road seen through a window with a mosquito on it, in intense black-and-white. Simple yet complex, hard yet delicate. It touched me immediately, and I thought, I wish I had taken it.
The image that moved you most?
Liliroze : My first ultrasound.
The image that made you angry?
Liliroze : The photo of little Aylan Kurdi on a beach by Nilüfer Demir.
A photograph that changed the world?
Liliroze : Earthrise from the Moon.
A photograph that changed your world?
Liliroze : The first photo I ever sold. I don’t even remember which one, but it changed my world.
A key image in your personal pantheon?
Liliroze : Le Violon d’Ingres by Man Ray.
What interests you most in a photograph?
Liliroze : Its ability to move me.
What details do you look for in a face, landscape, or object?
Liliroze : I don’t seek details. I look for what’s invisible, a harmony, an impression, a whole that conveys a feeling. Any detail that emerges is a happy accident.
Do you agree with Elliott Erwitt: “Color is descriptive; black-and-white is interpretive”?
Liliroze : Not at all. Perhaps even the opposite, because my work isn’t a faithful representation of reality, in color or black-and-white.
Can technique ever outweigh emotion in photography?
Liliroze : I’m not sure it can outweigh it, but sometimes technique can hinder emotion. When everything is too controlled, accidents, poetry, and surprise are missing.
Is beauty in photography purely aesthetic?
Liliroze : Beauty goes far beyond aesthetics. Some photos are very aesthetic but not beautiful; others are less aesthetic yet breathtakingly beautiful.
What can make silence visible in a photograph?
Liliroze : Mist, sky, night, or dawn, to name a few.
Is the uniqueness of a photograph in the moment or the staging?
Liliroze : The moment. Whatever the staging, a photo’s uniqueness comes from the precise moment. Staging can be replicated; the moment cannot.
Can a photograph be truer than reality?
Liliroze : Yes, if it’s closer to the memory of reality than reality itself. Then it becomes reality.
Can a photograph change our perception of an event?
Liliroze : Yes. A photograph is a point of view, and a convincing point of view can change perception.
Is photography testimony or manipulation?
Liliroze : Primarily testimony, but in this era of post-truth, it can become manipulation.
What makes a good photo?
Liliroze : Beautiful light, good composition, and a little magic.
The essential quality for a good photographer?
Liliroze : Thinking in images.
How do you choose projects?
Liliroze : They choose me. Photography is therapeutic; life determines the projects. They impose themselves as self-evident.
Describe your creative process.
Liliroze : Chaotic and abundant.
A project close to your heart?
Liliroze : Aux Oiseaux, which I’m finalizing and hope will become a beautiful book.
A person you’d like to photograph?
Liliroze : David Lynch.
A photographer you’d like to be photographed by?
Liliroze : Keisot.
A must-have photography book?
Liliroze : The Architect’s Brother by Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison.
The last photo you took?
Liliroze : The ocean.
Social media preference?
Liliroze : Instagram, because it initially promoted images the most.
What has changed in photography since social media?
Liliroze : Democratization and easier access to people’s work.
Instagram account to follow?
Liliroze : Mine!!!
Your view on AI?
Liliroze : Mixed. Useful for cleaning, retouching, and post-production, but dangerous in the wrong hands.
Color or black-and-white?
Liliroze : Both.
Natural or artificial light?
Liliroze : Natural.
Most photogenic city?
Liliroze : Paris, or an Italian city: Florence, Palermo, Naples.
A city, country, or culture you dream of discovering?
Liliroze : India.
A place you never tire of?
Liliroze : My home.
Image representing the current state of the world?
Liliroze : The Falling Man by Richard Drew.
What is missing in today’s world?
Liliroze : Beauty, poetry, and empathy.
If God existed, would you ask for a photo or a selfie?
Liliroze : Definitely not a selfie! I’d try to convince Him, showing my work, to pose for me.
Your favorite “drug”?
Liliroze : Love (and whisky 😉)
Your best way to disconnect?
Liliroze : Love (and whisky 😉)
Your latest indulgence?
Liliroze : Love (and whisky 😉)
Your greatest professional extravagance?
Liliroze : Quitting everything to become a photographer.
A job you wouldn’t have liked?
Liliroze : Finance.
A question that confounds you most?
Liliroze : When asked to categorize my work. I don’t like boxes or limits.
The last thing you did for the first time?
Liliroze : Build a tree and sculpt birds for my next exhibition’s scenography.
Your greatest regret?
Liliroze : I have none.
If you had to start over?
Liliroze : Since I have no regrets, I wouldn’t change anything.
Ideal dinner guests?
Liliroze : Friends and family. For the chef: Freddy Girardet or Guy Savoy.
What do you like people to say about you afterward?
Liliroze : “I’m glad I met them, and we laughed so much.”
The one thing everyone must know about you?
Liliroze : I am a lover.
A final word?
Liliroze : There’s a bit more… do you want me to share it?
