Paolo Roversi: ‘The More We Think, The Less We See’

PARIS — “Paolo Roversi’s images have at all times made Comme des Garçons garments stronger and extra lovely,” designer Rei Kawakubo says.

Collaborations between Kawakubo and the photographer are presently on show within the newly inaugurated Dover Avenue Market Paris’ courtyard and exhibition area, in addition to coating the facade of the Comme des Garçons flagship on Rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré.

Kawakubo isn’t the one one paying tribute to the enduring Italian photographer at current: Roversi is the topic of a serious monograph on the Palais Galliera trend museum — his first-ever devoted museum exhibition in Paris — in addition to two new books, a large-format catalogue accompanying the Galliera exhibition and “Letters on Mild,” an trade of epistolary essays between Roversi and the thinker Emanuele Coccia.

Roversi was born in Ravenna, Italy in 1947, the identical yr Christian Dior debuted his “New Look.” In 1973, he moved to Paris, the place his delicate portraits full of gentle and shadow made him a trusted collaborator of designers together with Kawabuko, Romeo Gigli and Yohji Yamamoto, in addition to a sought-after contributor to the likes of Vogue and Egoïste throughout trend media’s golden period.

However Roversi is one thing greater than a photographer. His work carries on the legacy of Renaissance and humanist painters, bringing an uncommon sense of eternity to the ultra-ephemeral trend world. His works seem to emanate from an historic soul, providing classes in knowledge with out speech and radiating one thing past right now’s chaotic instances.

Nothing seems to be stolen. Whereas Roversi has contributed to immortalising a lot of trend’s most memorable faces from Natalia Vodiaova to Saskia de Brauw and Audrey Marnay, his images have little to do with the erotic cliché of the “supermodel.” Every picture seems to be drawn — nearer to a piece by Balthus than a easy photographic publicity.

BoF met Roversi in his studio in Paris’ 14th arrondissement, the place he stays devoted to the language of a Renaissance artist, constructing his work round gentle.

Laurence Benaïm: Your exhibition at Palais Galliera and the accompanying guide are the primary monograph devoted to your work by a Paris museum. What are your ideas on this milestone celebration?

Paolo Roversi: The exhibition is the fruit of a protracted course of. At Palais Galliera, I labored with [curator] Sylvie Lécailler, who offers a superb account of this journey, which started in 2016. I additionally labored with set designer Ania Martchenko and designer Akari Lisa Ishii from I.C.O.N for the lighting.

I requested them to maintain the environment of a palace. They usually succeeded marvellously. The frequent thread was gentle, with darker, extra enchanting rooms that allowed for daylight, and a big desk within the center, paying homage to Studio Luce. Lastly, a kind of “chapel”. There’s one thing slightly non secular about it.

What I observe, what I really feel, is the nice silence of the guests. You get the impression that they’re in meditation, contemplation. Whether or not it’s a silver gelatine, Polaroid or carbon print, all of them very meticulous and totally different. Each customer has bodily contact with these images—they don’t seem to be floating photos. They’ve a physique, a weight. A presence, a materiality.

LB: And at Dover Avenue Market?

PR: There it’s a distinct matter. All the scenography was conceived and designed by Rei Kawakubo, beginning within the courtyard the place the pictures are wrapped round these large columns. And within the basement, we hung prints round one other imposing column. Circling the images offers them a specific concord and thriller. The pictures are all about Comme des Garçons. It’s a really lengthy story, a narrative of friendship and loyalty because it started in 1982. I’ve immense admiration for Rei Kawakubo; her creations are artistic endeavors. They’ve at all times pushed me to surpass myself, to hunt out terrain beforehand unknown to me.

In each instances, I select to expertise the second as a celebration moderately than a consecration. There’s nothing tutorial about it. It has extra to do with joie de vivre than skilled satisfaction.

LB: “Le temps lengthy means giving the soul time to floor. And leaving time for likelihood to intervene,” you confided to Sylvie Lécailler within the [Galliera] exhibition’s catalogue. Whilst you defend a long-term imaginative and prescient in your artwork, why do you assume individuals are so drawn to your work right now?

PR: I’ve at all times stayed on the margin of trend, by no means letting myself get caught up in its whirlwind. I’ve stayed subsequent to the river. And this distance has enabled me to follow this craft and produce photos which can be each timeless and up to date, if that’s not too pretentious to say.

LB: “We’re all little staff of the solar,” you write. Images is “an infinite childhood”, the solar by no means going out, it’s an infinite vitality” Would you say that your job is to attract gentle?

PR: I take advantage of my little flash like a paintbrush. I imagine it’s the sunshine of the guts that enlightens the world. However, shadows are generally the softest and most mysterious of lights.

LB: “I take advantage of the phrase asceticism for Paolo, achieved by intense focus on his gadgets, on rays of sunshine, on backgrounds and surfaces,” writes Erri de Lucca within the preface to Lettres sur la lumière (“Letters on gentle”). How do you navigate the age of synthetic intelligence and instantaneous social networking whereas defending that perspective?

PR: New media are revolutionising pictures; each period has its revolutions. However I don’t assume that tomorrow will likely be higher or worse. I don’t let myself be overwhelmed by all the brand new developments. I nonetheless develop my movies by hand. Technical adjustments don’t upset my work, nor do they have an effect on me — I proceed on my outdated path. I’m not saying it’s the most effective one; it’s mine.

LB: How do you assume synthetic intelligence will impression picture creation? For trend or in any other case?

PR: Images doesn’t come from a logical language, or from intelligence, however from a sense. No machine or system can exchange it. The extra we expect, the much less we see.

For me, pictures doesn’t imply framing an object from exterior actuality to restrict it within the digital camera, however moderately awakening one thing inside oneself and bringing it to gentle. The essential factor is to desert oneself to oneself, to at least one’s desires, recollections, and feelings. And to look no additional than inside your self. You don’t take {a photograph}, you give it.

LB: You’ve been utilizing Polaroids for over 30 years. You have been even nicknamed Paolo-roid. Has the digitalisation of pictures modified your occupation right now? What do you refuse to digitise? Why or why not?

PR: I’m detached to floating photos. I generally take images with my iPhone, once I don’t have one in all my cameras with me. If I wish to use one, I must print it first to present it physique. In any other case, it loses its style and flavour.

{A photograph} is an image of your grandmother in your pockets, in your desk, on the wall. It’s a presence. I like household albums, journey albums, and we proceed this custom. My mom used to say that if a photograph didn’t have a date written on the again, it was nugatory. Moreover, I learn books and don’t use tablets. When there aren’t any extra books, we’ll know we’ve turn out to be a folks of barbarians, and I hope that day by no means comes.

LB: What do you most dislike right now?

PR: Individuals who take images of themselves in entrance of work as an alternative of them. Selfies are to pictures what buying lists are to literature.

LB: How did you handle to reconcile your approach of working with the necessities of the manufacturers you shoot for? Is it doable to defend your imaginative and prescient in a world the place luxurious manufacturers are getting greater, dearer, and extra demanding by way of “visibility”?

PR: What we’re seeing right now is a standardisation of trend pictures and pictures normally. That’s why I like working with Rei Kawakubo. Along with her, there’s no industrial logic.

LB: “Completely different photographic cultures are levelling out, and younger European photographers are far more aware of a sure type of American pictures, similar to Saul Leiter or William Eggleston,” you write. How do you view trend pictures right now? Who’re the younger photographers who offer you hope for this occupation?

PR: With just a few exceptions, there’s a race to the underside. I gained’t identify names. The issue is that pretending to be [something] is usually extra essential than expertise or precise information. It’s in discovering and finding out the masters that I draw my references. It’s not a query of appropriating a piece, however of measuring your self in opposition to these you admire. You’ll be able to’t simply invent your self as a photographer.

LB: “It was 1982 or 1983, when Kirsten [Owen] got here to me and illuminated me together with her presence. She has at all times been my angel of sunshine, falling from the sky into my studio”, you clarify in “Letters on Mild”. Then there have been Guinevere [Van Seenus], Saskia [De Brauw], Natalia [Vodianova] and Audrey [Marnay]. Why are these fashions so essential to your work?

PR: These girls allowed me to develop what pursuits me most: the psychological side. Due to them, I used to be capable of strategy one thing apart from actuality. They allowed me to the touch, even fleetingly, the thriller of magnificence. They’ve particular qualities. It’s not a query of being photogenic, it’s a query of presence. I bear in mind Avedon saying, when he had no presence in entrance of him: “There’s no one at house”. There are lots of women and boys with lovely eyes. What counts is having a look, a personality.

LB: What does an excellent trend photographer want to grasp about trend, about garments? What doesn’t he really want to grasp?

PR: It’s not essential for him to take slicing programs, or to know completely how one can assemble a sleeve. What’s essential is that he’s aware of every designer’s fashion and sort of mannequin. Images is an trade, an encounter. Style pictures is rarely a easy copy of actuality, however at all times an invention, a creation. It’s good to know the spirit of trend in addition to the approach. It’s about being an interpreter.

LB: “My little torch offers me precisely this sense: that it’s the gentle of my thoughts, my eyes, my coronary heart that may shine on the issues of the world”, you write. What would you prefer to convey?

I’m touched once I see that a few of my images contact folks, and younger folks. I’m not projecting something. I’m glad once I convey an emotion.

This interview has been edited for readability and concision.