Edouard Paturel is a contemporary artist based in Paris. His photography centers around fashion, youth and portraiture with his style expressing the renewal of the photographic experience. Paturel’s projects distance themselves from the flow of digital images- deterritorialized, duplicated, slowed down. By publishing, creating limited editions and using the Polaroid, it’s his way of building a memory which stays and resists the ceaseless stream of short-lived digital images. With emotion, Paturel’s images answer each other according to correspondences, connections and recurrences.
“Instavirge” is Paturel’s new book including ninety-two portraits of the same person made over a period of more or less five years. The themes come to light easily; the journey, the souvenir, the identity, the personality, the emotion, the resistance. Joining the same approach as to fight against “digital” and the “soon to disappear”; the book reassumes the images which had been made for the social network. Always publishing books on carefreeness and freedom, his first book “My Holidays” is another example of his method.
“The photo is very close to music, in which what serves to take its instrument if it is to do something already made.”
Paturel says in his book, “everything we do is a self portrait.”
Name : Edouard Paturel
Birthplace : Marseille
Métier : Photographer & Artist
Sources of inspiration : It used to be photography but now it’s architecture, design, old design books, artisans from many countries and various periods, old ceramics, Italian movie director Dino Risi for freshness, Lars Von Trier for pushing the boundary, vintage typography, interviews with artists.
I’ve discovered enamelled lava recently and it’s so amazing.
Some people from the older generation like Nick Knight, Michel Lamy and David Lynch who continue to be more modern than the youngest.
Being curious about things I am not familiar with: “What if I research Black Metal on internet?And what about : the best tapestry of 70’s?”
I also like scrutinizing numerous works of artists, trying to see something else the artist wanted to make, to guess other forms and other words, I try to see completely something else, things which do not even exist as the author made and take out another idea of it.
Sources of motivation : That one day I will have the level and the acknowledgements of people I admire, and with this success I will drive south to my big house on the French Riviera. I know it’s an illusion, but this fantasy works as a motivation.
What makes you happy : The feeling when I think I have a good idea, when I finally make a picture I had in mind for a long time and being satisfied of the result.
& Driving south after being stuck in Paris for a few months…
Favorite reads : I can’t read much, I have concentration trouble, I prefer to watch interviews on youtube of famous movie directors, architects, thinkers, philosophers, writers and artists.
Favorite tunes : I run playlists on Youtube, so now it’s Extrawelt, then Popof, then Sam Paganini, Royksopp, then Nu & Jo Ke and after it’s Chloe, and after it’s Soft Moon, and then Plastikman (Ping Pong and Krakpot!!), and then Arnaud Rebotini. And sometimes, when nobody is watching I can listen to “C’est Un Parc” by Gerard Manset.
Favorite foods : Japanese food definitely, when it’s good, I can it eat all day.
Beauty tips : I make a garlic cure, pomegranate, black radish, juice etc.. a little cream on the face and never get drunk with a strong and cheap alcohol.
Favorite ways to unwind : Laying on the back, being very calm, breathing slowly but deeply for about 20 minutes and see what crosses my mind. Also, a glass of wine in front of the fireplace after a big day of work in my country house, but I have to be exhausted by the work first.
What gets you in a working flow : To think about the things I haven’t done yet, when I will turn 80, I want to be surrounded by the things I have made; books, prints, sculpture, drawing, various object like little furniture too.
What are you working on now : Working on prints, I have to make a lot of prints, collecting ideas for a new book, collecting ideas for short movies and sometimes I have calls for specific jobs and shoots.
Favorite motto / quote : This quote that was on social media a while ago: “There will be always someone to criticize you, you should as well do whatever you want.”
“Somehow, it’s easier when you don’t care.” by me.
*Available for purchase at Ofr. Bookshop in Paris.