prev / next

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·

The Place that Stops the Age

Hi dear Lucy,

how are you doing? what are you up to these days?

Above some samples i made few days ago about this wonderful place beside the shopping mall (near me in Créteil) where skaters like to gather : this place makes me feel "happy and young" just by watching them doing their stunts while being "free from everything" ; it is like an eternal summer place that makes you forget your everyday stress ! And i am so happy that i finally answered this inner call to make this series (that is still in progress for now i think).

The biggest problem is that i made the mistake to choose a long zooming range lens (just to be "distant" from them so i wouldn't bother them while doing their sports) that has a VERY SLOW focusing while my subject is : young people moving, turning and jumping fastly !

The second problem is "once more" i do believe that the hardest thing about making pictures of strangers is overcoming my own shyness and to have the courage to photograph them without asking for their permission for the simple and good reason that i do not want them to be aware of me so i could picture them in their very natural attitudes unless i want to make a portrait of someone ...but in the end (and luckily after that i made these photos) everyone ended up being irritated by me and someone called the police (no need to tell you that a stranger photographer is always considered as a "sick voyeur" specially when he is in the very middle of a community making pictures of everyone without asking for their permission ...how can you explain to "the others" that you are only interested in the light, the shapes, the framing and the composition, and that you consider them "elements" of this whole visual plan? Anyway the police came and they questioned me to make sure that my intentions are good.

But in the end and against all that, i felt a big pleasure once i sat in front of the screen to examine closely the results and to retouch them in a very subtle way ... I hope you will like those pictures from a place where people defy gravity to stay young.

Cheers xxx Lee.