sc-street

[sc-street]

Sebastien Chou about street photography - Interview 2024

1 Please introduce yourself: What is your name, where are you from, what do you do?

My name is Sébastien Chou, and I'm 51 years old. I was born in France, in Lille, in the North of France. I've been living in Brazil, in Belo Horizonte, for over 10 years now. I am currently a French teacher.

2 What is your relationship with photography and how did you get into it?

I studied art at the fine art school, where photography was already my medium. My work is organized around two axes: on the one hand, more introspective photography, and on the other, street photography, which came much later and more significantly since I've been living in Brazil. These photos are mainly taken with my cell phone. These two facets of my work are organized in the same way: to get out and walk. However, the results and objectives are different.

3 What do you think triggers you to photograph in a certain moment? Is it planned or solely driven by intuition?

As far as street photography is concerned, it's almost a daily activity for me now. And I no longer dissociate it from walking as a physical activity. I usually decide to go into a neighborhood by chance, without any expectations or preconceived ideas. In fact, it's imperative. Surprise is an essential ingredient in my approach. I don't know where I'm going, and I don't know what I'll find, or even if I'll find it. So I can speak of a daily adventure. And then, as I walk, there are certain places where something gets organized and falls into place. In any case, something that's conducive to play, composition, and framing. Light and shadow are usually the triggers. At the moment ,I can't see the details yet. It's all about global composing between colors and geometric shapes. It's only when I get back home to the computer that the little 'internal' stories start to fall into place as far as I'm concerned. But when I'm there, my decisions are very intuitive and absolutely and solely based on composition: I don't see a wall, I see a rectangle. I don't see the sky, but a blue mass. There's very little human presence in my photos, but when there is, it's on the same plane as the rest, a mass, a form, and a potential compositional element. Then everything happens very quickly and instinctively.

4 What is the story you want your pictures to tell?

There's no narrative in the verbal sense of the word, I think, in my pictures. At least, there isn't in my initial position. I don't even think there's any verbal intervention in me at the moment of shooting. No thoughts at all. That's probably what I like about these moments. The brain is on pause. It's no longer the driver. Once again, it's all about shapes, elements, timing (sometimes choreography), and lighting. It's very often the case that I only realize why I've been motivated by a place or a light when I get home and look at the image on my screen. Sometimes it's a color scheme, a vibration of light, or an effect of transparency or opacity. It's very physical, and in my case, it's never expressed in words. Neither in words, nor in ideas. In fact, I often say to myself that if an image can be emotionally summed up in a sentence, it must have something wrong with it. Facades, objects, even people, are above all pretexts for emotional and abstract compositions. I don't want an image to say something, but to show something, and if possible even without defining that ‘something’ exactly.

5 Which city would you like to visit the most, and why 6 What is your personal relationship to cities and how do you perceive them as places in general?

The city of Belo Horizonte, where I currently live, has been and still isn an inexhaustible source of inspiration for me. I'm thinking, in particular, of the city's most popular districts, which offer an incredible wealth of colors, shapes, and architectural arrangements, sometimes even to the point of improbable accumulation. I'm not talking about the poorest neighborhoods or the favelas, but rather the working-class districts that had their moment of glory or peace a few decades ago, but which are now somewhat neglected. There are confrontations between eras and styles, but also the accumulation of different pragmatic logics that can often clash to the point of incoherence. (There's also the vegetation and nature that, mixed in the city, could quite easily reclaim their rights.) It's an incredibly rich playground. Some neighborhoods offer something around every corner. I had the same feeling when visiting Naples. From a historical point of view, nothing seems to be the same, but from a formal point of view, it's a real explosion in both cases. And just like the favelas, and despite the patchwork nature of their development, there can be a certain homogeneity and often a great deal of poetry. There is not a city that I dream of in particular. There is necessarily something to see in each of them.

7 What is the driving force behind creation?

Over time, I've come to realize that the purpose of all this, the creative aspect, lies not in the final object or image, but in the journey towards it. So here I come back to the idea of walking and being surprised. The final image is merely the apparent formal conclusion. In general, we walk from one point to another with a predetermined goal and direction, with a view to optimizing distance and time. Photographic walking offers a totally different filter of appreciation and a different point of view on what we call reality. I don't decide to turn right or left because it's shorter, but because there's light or something that intrigues me. The hierarchy and function of things also get totally turned upside down. Shadows and clouds, for example, which for a functional trajectory are absolutely useless and secondary (or purely ignored) suddenly take center stage. I may very well decide to move a meter or two to the right just on the basis of the position of a shadow or a plastic bag on the ground. The grid of appreciation and reading is completely disrupted; it's clearly another reading (reality?). So, obviously, the image in terms of finality is important, but the whole journey in between, and I'd even say this dimension, this conditioning, is now even more important to me. It's a bit like entering a meditative state, and more often than not, I've noticed that if I can get there, it's often easier to come back with something. So, from a creative point of view, it is indeed a photographic and artistic process, but not just and only. I used to feel a great deal of frustration when I came home without a satisfying image, but that's no longer the case. I know that this walk will find its place another day and in another form, and in another photo.

8 Which project did you never finish?

Nothing to do with photography, but music and sound have always attracted me. I think I listen to music more than I look at photos or images. In the end, it's almost the same thing in my mind: I see a line and arrangements of sounds/notes, and from there, an emotion can be born. In the same way, I very rarely listen to lyrics in music, or else on the same level as the other instruments/as a voice/sound. There's a lot in common between photography and music in that respect, I think. It's all about arrangements. I enjoy looping sounds, but I never finalize anything. So I keep this project in mind of being able to arrange a few tracks in the form of an album of experimental music or a soundtrack for a film. it's a project that's close to my heart. It's clear that I don't have the minimum technical baggage, and that I frequently come up against the same limits. But it's up to me to make the most of it and do something with it soon. I'm not giving up.

9 What is that «one thing» you have never managed to photograph and is now gone for good?

As I never plan anything in advance and let myself go with the unexpected (‘let's get lost'), it's very rare that I feel the frustration of a missed photo. In dreams, however, it's very common! I'm in front of the magic moment, and you can be sure that I won't have any battery to take it! And so…. I usually come back from there …. empty-handed).)

10 If you could travel back/forth in time, what advice would you give your younger / older self?

I'm not going to be very original, but when I was younger, I was impressed by others. They took up a lot of space. That kind of thing fades with time, and from an artistic point of view, it's no longer important. The judgment and gaze of others are obviously taken into account, but it's no longer at the center of everything. So, if I could go back, I'd avoid wasting time on that as much as possible and try to gain time by immersing myself in a project that's close to my heart without paying as much attention to outside opinions and trends. And about to give advice to my older self?… It's difficult to project myself in that direction… To advise someone who I hope will be more experienced and 'accomplished' than I am at present is difficult.

11 What do you prefer saying: «to take a photograph» or to «make a photograph», and why?

"Neither. I like to think we 'find the images, knowing full well that most of the time it's the images that find us.”

12 What is the most interesting experience you have had while photographing?

As I wrote it, now the most important thing about photographic practice is the state it puts me in. It's really the feeling of being in another dimension. It's actually quite addictive and lot of fun too. There's a spirit of play and discovery. It's also like going fishing."

13 If it wasn’t for photography, what would you be interested in doing instead?

Sometimes I want to take care of an old monument, an abandoned theater, a hotel, or an object that has stood the test of time, to restore it and, at the same time, immerse myself for days - months on end in another space-time era. It makes me think that there's also a certain archivist spirit in wanting to photograph these facades and neighborhoods. They're generally quite old, and these kinds of places are clearly destined to disappear. So it's also a way of preserving them and keeping a trace. The first function of a photo is to stop time and keep.

14 How would you describe one of your pictures to a blind person?

As objectively and analytically as possible/ Rectangular image format - Landscape format. Color/printed on semi-gloss paper with a white margin around it (about 2 cm). Quite heavy paper, I'd say 300 g. Facade painted pale blue with vertical moisture marks. Quite an old building (+/-1940). On the right, a small broken window. A red curtain protrudes slightly. It appears to be windy, as it is slightly puffed up. In the center, a closed white door with the handwritten number 314. At the far left of the picture, the base of a gray concrete electricity pole. On the ground and laterally, thin, intertwined shadows that appear to be urban power cables. And on the upper part of the facade, it's still possible to make out the word 'Frutas' in yellow capital letters. No emotional reading. It is up to her or him to get in .

15 What are you currently working on, and — if there is — what is your next project or journey?

I'm still walking without plans in particular. I'd maybe like to rent a car to discover the interior of Brazil and explore the small towns. There must be a lot to do there too. Why not put my photos together in a book about Belo Horizonte's neighborhoods, an exhibition… But it's a lot harder to set up than just going out for a walk.

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