TITLE: Collecting and Staging

Through this series I am exploring my french heritage in all artistic disciplines from the late 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. I feel close to many photographic works that have been produced in studios during this period because of their incredible theatricality and pictorial dimension. I created these images a bit similarly to collages. From the pictures that I collect I pick elements that grab me: an attitude, a dress, a hairstyle and then by visiting institutions such as the National Theatre I try to source them back and bring them all together in one photograph. From picking iconic and grabbing elements I think there is a sense of familiarity in this ensemble, as if the viewer already met these characters through the works of Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, Brassaï or Victor Hugo. There is something really poignant in how the artists of the 19th century celebrated the outsiders and the marginals and I wanted to examine the notions of hero and antihero by the agency of different themes such as prostitution and homosexuality. During my research I was also seduced by the idea of the hidden, what you cannot access. By shooting exclusively interior scenes and no lanscapes the notion of time and space disappears and leaves the viewer clueless. I am very interested in the concept of decontextualisation and revealing the artifice; that is the reason why I chose to stage half of the pictures in a white studio, so that by the means of a contrast the viewer would question the thruthfulness of these photographs. My inspirations have always included documentary photography as much as fashion imagery and I see in this series this strong duality and contradiction between a crude reality and a sophisticated polish.

AUTHOR: Julien Martinez Leclerc (France)

Julien Martinez Leclerc is a portrait and fashion photographer based in London. He is the son of a parisian art dealer who strongly participated in educating his eye for paintings and drawings. His early experimentations with sculpture and furniture design revealed his ability to organise lines and shapes in an harmonious way. Julien is a perfectionist who’s deep ambition is to deliver crafted pictures that are both personal and innovative. His fascination for staging and theatre is translated by the use of dramatic lights and a habit to transform the person he photographs. He will graduate in July 2017 from his BA Photography at the London College of Communication.