PORTRAIT
Marc Lagrange found tragically dead on December 26, 2015, in Tenerife, Canary Islands. A talented man is dead, a genius photographer is gone. In writing, we admired Marc. Through this eye of exacerbated sensuality and precision , through this simple, discreet, passionate and passionate little man. 15 days earlier we had just made a filmed interview with him about Paris, discussing photography and works, without suspecting that at 57 years old, we could not exchange with him.
Marc Lagrange worked by combining beauty and pleasure. He is the photographer of nudes and portraits, creating luxury and timeless expanses, where eroticism and intimacy play a central part. Losing all inhibition in the face of the camera, his models come to life, while becoming characters, conforming to the archetypes of his desires. His muses, his femme fatales, retain their mysterious and elusive charms, making themselves more aggressively attractive. Aphrodite plays. Marc favors games of seduction with the display of rough sex. He plays with dreams and fantasy, disregarding all logic and the restraints of reality. Known for photographing with large Polaroids, he covets texture and shuns the normative contrasts and dimensions of fashion photography. Privileging forms and curves, the artist places the body at the center of his artistic research, exploring new perspectives, inventive angles and the perfect pose. Images come to mind first. There are no sketches and preliminaries. Designing the sets himself and attaching himself to the smallest accessory, Marc is a purist and an enthusiast. The same goes for places, long and carefully researched until they meet his requirements. He sometimes spends his days looking for a specific object, which will be placed on a table, as evidenced by his banquet scenes, which distill lust. Marcs work has been unanimously acclaimed by critics and collected around the world.
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
Your main character trait ?
I am a great perfectionist;! When I start to take a photo I think about it for a long time, I reflect. Everything must be well coordinated, prepared. I study everything, right down to styling, which is of paramount importance to me. I have an eye absolutely everywhere, from shooting to printing. I try to make everything perfect. Im not an easy person to work with (laughs), I may be very demanding, but I&;m not a rude or brutal photographer, Im rather calm, I try to explain to the whole team, to everyone, what I;m looking for.
Why the Nu ?
I am often cataloged as an erotic nude photographer. Its a title that I dont like, that I don;t give myself. I do nudes, lots of nudes but I want it to be more than nude. I seek to stylize the nude, to make it cultural, that my photo has meaning ! I started doing photography for Playboy, or that kind of publication, but I can't do it anymore, it;s too low-end, too banal. I show photos of naked women with a story, a narrative, the Banquet series or more recently Hôtel Maritime. In these series there is always something happening, an allegory, a narration, a tension, and it is never to show nude for real naked. This joins the work and thought of Helmut Newton. He shot a lot of nudes but with a frame behind. In front of each photograph the spectator represents himself, invents a story. I like women very much and even more naked women, but women staged, placed, and not exhibited. in particular with Senza Parole, I did an art history work that shows references to sculpture, painting, cinema. The nude is not an argument for putting a naked woman. It is a global approach.
And precisely through this process, what do you want to express?
I wish viewers to be touched by ideas ; they become observers. I want the photo to trigger emotions in people. And that's why I play with the nude. I have a big project for a museum, its no longer a secret, inspired by Roman decadence, something a la Fellini, by Satyricon !
How did you start photo ?
I have always taken photos ! Since I was 12 years old. I was passionate about it. (Laughs)À I was 28 years old, an engineer. I started photographing my brother-in-law. at that time, he was a famous model, he had posed a lot for Olivero Toscani and led many major campaigns with him. I shot it ; all the agencies saw the photos and wondered who had taken them. Every Saturday and Sunday, I was doing tests and then I did my first book. It was a big turning point in my life. ;At At that time, I was offered a lot of work as an engineer. I looked at the people around me, they were old and grey, not in body but in soul, they had nothing to do and I didn't recognize myself in them, I wanted to scream, I wanted to live_cc781905-5cde -3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_! And I stopped. People told me p;youre crazy followed my heart And it worked.
- Find the continuation of Marc Lagrange dansNormal Magazine #1 -
