Largely inspired by cinema, Pascal Barnabe started with studio portraits based on the heroines from the first silent movies.
As a self-taught photographer with perhaps too much admiration for all those he considered masters, he probably did not dare to go towards the greater freedom on the part of both model and photographer that he is pursuing now.
Later on, he refined his skills alongside Mickaël Ackerman, Anders Petersen, Richard Dumas and Claudine Doury
His desire to take photographs comes from people – people he knows, sometimes, but mostly people he comes across while wandering in Paris or travelling around the world. People who inspire him but will not always allow themselves to be retained. He knows this and his approach to photography is that of a portraitist, coming in close intimacy with the model without ever taking away any of their mystery. He is instinctive and favours sensations, emotions and the moment over technique.
That way, he gives the viewer the opportunity to encounter the model on their own terms too, without imposing any of his own emotions.
Today he is starting a series of portraits in which he wishes to focus even more on the model’s interior dimension, giving them complete freedom to be and to move and getting rid of masks and conventional representations, the photographer almost disappearing behind his work… An interesting project to keep an eye out for.
Hélène Le Masson
As a self-taught photographer with perhaps too much admiration for all those he considered masters, he probably did not dare to go towards the greater freedom on the part of both model and photographer that he is pursuing now.
Later on, he refined his skills alongside Mickaël Ackerman, Anders Petersen, Richard Dumas and Claudine Doury
His desire to take photographs comes from people – people he knows, sometimes, but mostly people he comes across while wandering in Paris or travelling around the world. People who inspire him but will not always allow themselves to be retained. He knows this and his approach to photography is that of a portraitist, coming in close intimacy with the model without ever taking away any of their mystery. He is instinctive and favours sensations, emotions and the moment over technique.
That way, he gives the viewer the opportunity to encounter the model on their own terms too, without imposing any of his own emotions.
Today he is starting a series of portraits in which he wishes to focus even more on the model’s interior dimension, giving them complete freedom to be and to move and getting rid of masks and conventional representations, the photographer almost disappearing behind his work… An interesting project to keep an eye out for.
Hélène Le Masson