“There is no real story, it’s the way you tell the story that becomes the story.”
I am different than I was before.
I have made a fashion film with dancers and it’s become a revelation.
I learned that when you work with certain dancers, you are working with people who make it their life’s calling to develop new and creative ways of expressing themselves through movement – with any part of their body – in unexpected and original ways. They can make dance much broader than the classic preconceptions I had before. It can be an approach to movement that involves the fusion of styles, rather than locking oneself into any particular one. Dancers also think in terms of sequence, one thing leading to another, beginnings and endings. Similar to storytelling, they combine emotion, timing, suspense and unexpected twists and turns, which is everything I could hope for. The connection they make is primal.
Done well, they can not only get my attention, but make it so I don’t want to take my eyes off of them. It’s my new love and it is accompanied by a complimentary obsession, the edit. I am a big believer at being the author to as much of the creative process as possible and editing has become as important to me as directing. In essence, it brings back the sprit of the photographer to the film. You get back the control over time and timing, deciding on what to show and when. You accelerate, decelerate or hold still. You decide on what image sequence has the most impact next to another. The final composing and the pace of the piece are in your hands. There is no real story, it’s the way you tell the story that becomes the story.
It is the art of layering multiple forms of creativity, one on the other – the dancer, the choreographer and me – creating the powerful, compelling whole. This intense collaboration is at the core of my revelation. I was born in France but raised in the US. I am based both in Paris and New York.