Pascal Fellonneau

Pascal Fellonneau

Bordeaux, France

website 

The pictures shown here are from Pascal Fellonneau's series "Summertime", "The Farm", and "Around Iceland". His latest series "Cold Cold Ground" is currently being exhibited at La Fountaine Obscure in Bordeaux, France. For more information and to take a closer look at his work, visit his and and the gallery's website. 

Lydia Greenaway

Lydia Greenaway

Bristol, England

flickr blog

Portraiture takes up a large part of your photographic work. What is your interest herein?

Expression, thought. You can read things in a persons face when it's stop still.

Who are your models?

Family and friends; it's easiest to work with those I'm closest to. And that personal aspect of portraiture is important.

Would you say that a portrait can deceive the viewer about the person shown? Or is there always a "quantum of truth" to be found?

I think a photograph captures a moment where what is outside of the frame can't really be imagined, but I don't think you can properly stage emotions that aren't there. It's usually somewhere in the photo if you look close enough.

It seems to me, that the representation of individual beauty plays an important role within your portraiture. Is this something you strive for and if so, why?

You can create beauty just by limiting it to a single confined composition. I guess I like trying to capture youth and freedom, almost trying to forget time. So the attempt to depict youthful beauty comes naturally alongside. However, I try to use the composition or backdrop to create something a bit different, rather than the expected. Unforeseen beauty can be stronger.

Have you ever worked with music during photoshoots, and if not, would you like to try?

Sometimes, not in a planned situation, it would be nice to experiment more with music, but my photographs are often outside... and I enjoy the silence of wide open space, there's something about capturing silence.

Also it is striking, that, like you just mentioned, most of your pictures are taken outside and in connection with nature in some way or the other. What do you cherish about these settings?

I love that they give an unpredictable and uncontrolled backdrop to the photograph. And it's just less confined, if you want to show freedom you need freedom.

Often, you seem to use natural light to emphasize "an atmosphere" around the pictures. What other elements and factors are most important for you, despite light?

Colour. I like colour photography. Certain colours juxtaposed together give a new beauty to the image. And expression, that vacant expression, it emphasises the eyes. And sometimes loneliness. I find that, when looking at the photo, it encourages you to experience something you're unsure of, so that there is a kind of personal input to every photo.

What is your current goal within photography?

I'd like to experiment with some different portraiture. Particularly taking pictures of strangers, I tend to stick with friends because they're easier to work with. But then you don't get the spontaneity, it becomes quite predictable.

Reading through the questions here, it all appears to be a very serious endeavor artists are doing. But what are the fun parts for you?

Finding a composition that changes the way you look at something, just for a second. Capturing grace and beauty, but at the same time something fresh, unexpected. Developing the film.

In the eye of the photographer. Take a look at her work!

Young Year, Young Luck

After quite a long period of absence, milkwithtea is back on, and features will be online weekly, beginning today. 

Wishing you all the best for 2011! The year is young, and so are we.

Harvey Hartley

Harvey Hartley

Petersborough, England

blog

Have you ever had and followed the urge to run home and get your camera in order to photograph something you have spotted passing by?

Yes, but they're the photos that end up on the cutting-room floor, by the time you get your camera nothing is quite the same, the moment has gone. That's why I always have my camera with me, it's become obsessive - an unattractive trait.

In connection to this, do you think that luck plays a big role in photography?

None of my photographs are pre-planned or set up, so I only have luck to rely on, it’s just a matter of keeping my eyes open.

Do you use your mobile's camera? Would you classify this as some sort of a guilty pleasure/necessity?

A while ago I started to play with the camera on my old phone because it gave me really nasty CCTV style images with strange little nuances, but now the camera I have on my phone is too good and really boring so I don't bother anymore.

I work as a graphic designer, so in my spare time I try to escape from the digital world and 35mm film enables this. It's nice to create things for myself that may not look so shiny and polished but the goal is always the same - to create a well made image no matter what the process or medium.

When thinking about all those new gadgets and electronic devices, which do you deem the most unnecessary?

As long as Boots keep developing film I'm happy! It's not for me to say what is and what isn't necessary, I guess gadgets are only unneccessary when nobody benifits from them, I'm sure there's somebody out there that found true companionship with a tamagotchi, but however.

You have a degree in illustration. How far can you implement your knowledge from this area into your work as photographer and vice versa?

Yes, I have a degree in illustration but I work in many different disciplines within the world of design - everything from illustration to video, print to animation and one informs the other. I imagine I take photos like an illustrator, maybe my compositions would be frowned upon by someone with a photography degree, maybe the way I use shapes and colours might be a little different, it’s all academic really.

Returning to photography, what do you wish to convey through taking and exhibiting pictures? Is there something you find yourself searching for or do you rather shoot away?

There are certain criteria I look for in a subject but it's not a list that could be put into words. I guess there is a common thread running through my work but I like to think that it's not contrived in any way, I'm not sure why but I feel that I can express myself though photography a lot clearer than I can through other means.

If you were to choose your favourite from the pictures shown here, which one would it be and why?

I have a fondness for the 'Abandoned Rose' image as it has an accidental story-telling element to it, I like other photographs from the same period because of the connection between the images and that time in my life rather than the images alone. I promise to give up this photography farce as soon as I take a shot that I'm truly happy with.

What do you enjoy looking at yourself more: pictures with or without people on them?

I wouldn't put that kind of restriction on viewing a piece of art. I try to be broad-minded, I love the work of Nan Goldin and Larry Clark but I also love William Eggleston and Stephen Shore. In my own work I very rarely take photos of people (I can't think of any at the moment) - maybe my friends just aren't as exciting as Larry Clark's or maybe I'm just to shy and awkward. 

Your most indulgent purchase for your photographic work?

I wish I could tell you stories akin to diamond encrusted giraffes and cocaine- carrying dwarfs but alas all my cameras are second hand and they're usually given to me.

I'd say the camera here is an attractive trait. Take a look at his work.