Since his graduation from Cantonal Art School of Lausanne (ECAL) in 2006, the now 30-year-old photographer’s work has been published in magazines such as Vogue, T Magazine, Document, M le Monde, and Double. This year, to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Europe’s prestigious ANDAM fashion awards, Jarrigeon was invited to reinterpret the work of past winning designers, including Gareth Pugh, Jean Touitou of A.P.C., Maison Martin Margiela, and Jeremy Scott. The 15 resultant images depict everything from real customers, to models and mannequins, and are displayed in the exhibition, “Grand Magasin” (“Department Store”) on view at Galérie des Galéries in Paris through November 15th. Soon after “Department Store” opened, Jarrigeon spoke with us about his photographic practices, inspirations, and how he conceived the exhibition.
How did you become interested in photography?
My first attempt was to study industrial design, but then I studied photography in Switzerland at the ECAL, Ecole cantonale d’art de Lausanne. Because of that I consider photography like a stage or performance that you can organise. In fact, it’s like a dinner: you invite guests and have objects that are the props. Then you mix them to have a good time and tie everything together.
You don’t consider yourself a fashion photographer, so what continuously draws you toward fashion?
What I really love is that there’s a lot of freedom in the fashion industry. You never work alone in your own studio. There’s a relationship between the stylist, model, lighting director, makeup artist, and hairdresser. It’s very spontaneous, always new.
You’ve done collaborations with brands, like Kenzo and Chanel. What do you find different between collaborations and reinterpretations?
The context is not the same, but I always feel very free when I work with a brand. For example, Chloé invited me to work on a special catalogue for Christmas. It’s a commercial project and I have to make some concessions, but I feel very free to do what I love. I don’t know if all fashion photographers feel this way, but I always have this feeling with brands. Maybe it links to what I said before: I consider photography a relationship between different aspects.
How did you conceptualise this exhibit and different brand interpretations?
For me, the best way to unify brands and designers is in a department store. Then I decided I wanted to photograph in a Jacques Demy way, very beautiful, very colourful, very pop. Some of the designers won the prize 25 years ago, so the story of the brand is very long, there are so many collections and things to say. It’s difficult for someone like me to say in one picture what is A.P.C., Véronique Leroy, or Maison Martin Margiela. I wanted to find a way to match their collections, their images, to my version of a department store.
I read you’re really influenced by Surrealism.
I used to be, but not as much anymore. I’m a big fan of Man Ray and his practices, he was very close to the Surrealist movement in France, but he also produced beautiful portraits and pictures for brands. I think this exhibition is a mix of different influences from the German photographic movement. You find Thomas Ruff’s influence in the picture of Véronique Leroy. There are also some references to Jeff Wall, the pictures of Gareth Pugh and Jeremy Scott are printed very big. I also love David Hockney.
As a photographer, what was one very formative moment for you?
At school I had the opportunity to meet Walter Pfeiffer. I was 22 and was very impressed by his freedom, spontaneity and instinctive approach. I learned that photography is spontaneous, like a clap. You can prepare everything, but you have to look at what happens in the moment.
What is one struggle you face?
Something that would be very, very difficult would be to photograph other photographers. To meet Inez [van Lamsweerde] and Vinoodh [Matadin] would be a dream, but if they asked me to shoot them, it would be one of the most difficult things. I admire their work and have a lot of respect for photographers, but if they’re in front of my camera then they’ll look at my photography. Maybe that’s something I should do soon—a series of photographers I love!
Credits
Text Emily McDermott
Photography Philippe Jarrigeon