Pyjproject's Egyptian story
"I was born on the 18 of April, in Rouen, France, Normandy. At the age of 14, my father, who was doing black and white photography, with a home studio, initiated me to this art. Remembering it, I was already playing with lines and perspective...life is strange sometimes... From this day, i made photo just for the fun during travels during holydays.
From 1993 to 1995, I made art history studies which brought me into a sphere I was totally ignorant, being first of all interested in archeology...
In 1998, i made some photos in Egypt ( the one you have on my website), and, years after years, the idea came to me to assemble the same image 4 times...making it with my hands at that time.
During the year 2000 I took a film 2 times without knowing it, and this was the beginning of another journey into imagination.
Being experimenting a lot in different kind of inner practices, yoga, tai chi, meditation, sport, music, since more than 25 years now, my art has always been highly related to my life and the way I create it...but I only realized it few years ago...knowing and not knowing, creating and letting things happen.
4 years ago, shopvida contacted me, for online fashion designs, and so, I begun another kind of art creation, unusual but highly interesting.
It is only 3 years ago that i really decided to make something of my art, understanding better what I was doing, and why I was doing it...an unending quest and questioning about life and art...staying on the edge of surrealism and realism...so that people understand and at the same time imagine what they see.
2 years ago, I entered the field of collaboration, first with a friend making her own jewelry, then, with an artist during an art performance mixing her calligraphy and traditional Indonesian dance, and lastly, with another friend teaching Ashantanga yoga in my city, Nantes.
I was part of my first collective exhibitions in Italy, in May and June 2020, digital exhibitions, at the madsmilano galery in Milan, "Dream Room" and "20.20" and in September 2020, I was part of the exhibition "image sent/images envoyée" at the french "Centre Culturel Canadien" in Paris."
See more on instagram at @pyjproject
A/A: Please explain the process to create these images.
P: Working with analogic films, my work process is highly random. I often have several films at my home, not remembering exactly what I have on them, I put one in my camera, and shoot something when I like it. Then, I discover what I have shot only when I develop my films...sometimes, there is only one shot on the film, sometimes 2 or 3. Sometimes, there is one week, 3 months, or several years between each shot on the film, making photography when I feel it...
Then, I put the scanned films on my computer, and assemble the same image by 4, playing with the different possibilities that I have with this process, and so, creating kind of narrative stories.
A/A: How long have you been shooting film?
P: After being taught photography by my father when I was 14, I came back to photography only 25 years after that...not wanting any special thing, just doing it for fun... and one day, I took a film 2 times without knowing it...and that was the beginning of all this. I begun making this artistic work consciously about 15 years ago ( I'm 49) and, years after years, something took shape...and that's only since one year and a half that I know where I go ...even if every new experimentations brings new ideas.
A/A: What attracts you to film versus digital?
P: What I like in using analogical film is that I don't control a lot of things...with digital technic, it would be very easy to overlay different photos and choose which one I prefer...but hazard would not be part of this game... and this is what I'm interested too...doing without knowing exactly what you are doing...just like in life...you make things because you want to make them, but you never really know where it will get you...my art is very close to my lifestyle, working a lot with intuition and not controlling (even if i suppose something inside me, unconsciously guide me...i'm an agnostic in many ways, prefering experimentation to theory).
The digital technic is an opportunity in someways cause assembling the photographies with my hands, before I had digital was highly demanding for many reasons (too long to explain here)...so...that makes it a lot more easy. I have to say I never use digital technic to "change" anything from my original films (colours, light...), this would not be fair to my working process...and to my life ideals.
A/A: What projects are you working on next?
P: I have many projects...one year ago, I begun to make collaboration with various art creators, a yoga teacher, a friend who creates her own jewelry, and a friend who made an artistic performance mixing calligraphy and traditional Indonesian dance. All those collaboration where due to hazard once more, not searching for it, but meeting those people who became friends and with who I decided to make collaboration. I have other subjects I want to explore, eroticism, music, sport....and many more...just waiting for life to take me to the right people.
Since 4 years now, I'm making clothes and home deco design with the Canadian firm shopvida (link on my photo website and on my linktree on instagram). A way to work with my art that is really nice... and very different from what I do...love it...
And as I like a also to write, I have decided to edit each 2 or 3 months a small "book" mixing 2 or 3 of my photographic stories with texts...the first one, named "youtopia" will be released beginning of May...I will alternate publications made on my own, and publication made around a collaboration.