B&WEuropeShotPhotography of Guy Le Vot

I got started with photography a little over two years ago now, with a random self-portrait. In a train station. The ideal place for a departure into the world. Into oneself.

The virus hit me as the camera triggered and the self-portrait remained a common thread. Perhaps a therapy. I see myself therefore I am ? But who am I in the still illusion of these images ? Ever since my childhood days, I’ve felt the presence of a veil between myself and reality. A veil, which photography allows me to lift or, on the contrary, to expose.

” EVERY PICTURE IS A PIECE OF ME “

Treating myself like a regular piece of data requires a deconstruction, most likely salutary, of the illusion of the ego. An attempt to get rid of my own lies through photography. In my self-portraits I fix the image of this stranger whose eye, sometimes probing, sometimes elsewhere, is, in the end, only staring at himself. Just like Rimbaud’s “I” is also “another”, I seek the world around me, looking for those similar to me – whether beings or things – in a portrait, a landscape, an animal or a group of anonymous passersby. With some kind of empathy, freeing me from the feeling of voyeurism.

So. I’m a beginner. A humble newbie forever, no doubt. I dedicate to photography the little time my work leaves me. My camera is always with me. As Ansel Adams used to say ” We don’t take a photograph – we make it “. Two years is a short laps of time to delve into the necessary technique this fabrication requires. Even though seeing is much more than a technical matter. Photography requires a lot of energy. It’s a game I try to play seriously. Depending on the days and the results I get I shift from a certain euphoria to raw disappointment. Therefore my pictures are more a spontaneous collection than the result of a rigorously planned method.

Never having been trained in photography I leaned on my readings as well as on the internet to learn the basic techniques, rules of composition, post-treatment… Bearing in mind that rules are only set to be broken.However, my true education comes from my practice. From not spending a day without making images. Again and again.What I’m looking for, above all, is to challenge and surprise myself. Seeking what, in me, could echo in the eyes of others. A silent communion based on what unifies us. This might seem pretentious but what drives us all is a dream ! Put more simply, I like to tackle the way to approach subjects, divert, amuse, if possible.

” Listen to my eye ” and dialogue with it, in the everlasting pleasure of questioning the framing and lighting.