Parisian photographer Fred Lahache likes to mix graphic aesthetics with images that are more relevant to photojournalism. It is in the simple stories that he finds his inspiration, between commissioned work and personal projects.
How was your relationship with professional photography built?
I am self-taught. I no longer felt at home in my home environment. The photo changed my mind. A first exhibition by the name of Tomodomo, at the Madé gallery, attracted a little attention and signed the start of orders for my work as a photographer. From a certain time, I lived enough from this second activity to no longer depend on the first, so I was able to make photography my work.
What are the people, the landscapes or the themes that necessarily make you take out your camera to capture its essence?
Small scenes can often suffice. Light, or a big flash can change everything. Timing is also important, I like the idea of an in-between, the moment just after or just before.
From your project “Looking for Hamza”, a photographed newspaper from Morocco to your order projects for Eurostar, how would you describe your photography practice?
I like to combine writing rather reportage with more graphic images, which isolate certain details. I can do one or the other or combine the two in the same series or the same command.
For Eurostar, I had to paint a portrait of Julien Pham, which I produced in a fun fair atmosphere to compensate for the greyness of the date of the meeting.
In my series “Looking for Hamza”, exhibited last year in Paris, I presented the logbook of an imaginary journey with my childhood friend. This ring is that of a taxi driver who was taking me to the Medina.
