Julien Douvier shows us how the beauty of contemplation can sublimate the most delicate things of life. His movies transforms the most simple natural elements into masterpieces, by unveiling the beauty of details. His pictures offer a poetic and hypnotic vision of the world.
For KENZO Parfums, Julien Douvier has embraced the luminous power of the poppy in a film made entirely of cinemagraphs, “Step Into The Light”. Cinemagraph is a hybrid format between video and photography, immortalizing some picture’s elements and keeping some details moving. It is an incredibly poetical way of conceiving videos.
“The idea was to create independent images having their own fierce and presence, living infinitely thanks to the principle of the loop . These pictures immediately evoke the fragrance, but in the same time, they also can be seen as a complete artwork narrating a true story” he explains.
The softness of the photographer completely fits with the rare fragrance composed by Patrick Guedj, artistic director of KENZO Parfums. Patrick Guedj is also known as a writer, photographer and globetrotter. His sense of observation allows him to see precious details and to highlight them. The work of the two men is therefore deeply linked.
The movie “Step into the Light” materialize the feeling of lightness and it attributes a face to brightness.
“Light is a self-represented element. In the movie, this intriguing and ensorcelling light, mysteriously call to her the woman. It is a silent dialogue, a choreography, between the light and the woman. At the end, she seems to pick a poppy, but it is actually only the shadow of the flower. This is maybe the source of brightness !” Julien Douvier explains.
An immense sense of spirituality is spread by these images, far from human world, coming from another dimension where light appears as the dominant element.
“We ignore what is the origin of the light, just as we ignore from where the woman comes. Why is she there ? Why is she walking to the source ? All we actually know is that they are reciprocally attracted and at the end, they finally join each other. Indeed, the woman is maybe the light itself, moving in a concentrical repetitive spiral.”
To quote the Master Perfumers of Eau de Lumière, Alberto Morillas & Amandine Clerc-Marie, “Like the poppy, light has no scent, but it evokes a sensation of beauty and strength; an emotion and a touch of magic.”
