I am Yvan. I have been taking photographs for fifteen years. I learned light on the French Riviera, where it is harsh at noon and soft at the end of the day. On skin, it reveals a curve, a breath, a moment of ease: sometimes a portrait, sometimes boudoir, sometimes a nude. All of it serves one idea: celebrating the Female body.
The sessions I enjoy most are the improvised ones. My best photographs were born from a simple idea, shared with the model. We look at each other, we say “Come on, let’s do it!”, and off we go, without overthinking it. The rest is a matter of trust, light and commitment.
I love the opposite just as much: highly worked images that call for a great deal of preparation. The idea is sketched out in advance; the place, the light, the outfit and every detail are settled before the first frame. After all that, pressing the shutter is the easiest part: in a single instant, all that work becomes a photograph. The two feed each other. One keeps the energy of the moment, the other gives an image wanted down to the last detail.
The same goes for the equipment. A prepared image may call for a professional digital camera and studio lights; an improvised one is often happier with a simple film camera. Everything I use has the same job: to capture the moment, the story and the emotion.
Right now I am working on a series called “Newspaper”. It brings feminine beauty together with the incongruous: women reading newspapers in places, and in outfits, that have nothing to do with each other. I like that gap. It makes you look twice.
Another series is taking shape, “Light on Skin”. It goes back to the beginning: nothing but light and skin, with no set, no story, no distraction. The first images will join the galleries as they are made.
I live and work in Nice. The galleries show part of this work, and the FAQ explains how a session unfolds. I also share the way I work on YouTube.
If you have an idea, even a simple one, and you would like us to make it happen together, the contact page is where it starts.
Yvan