IntervieW • 056 PH

Clement Chapillon

Please introduce yourself: What is your name, where are you from, what do you do?

My name is Clement Chapillon, I'm a documentary photographer based in Paris, working on long term photography projects.

What is your relationship with photography and how did you get into it?

My passion for photography started quite early. It was just a hobby when I was a teenager, back then I never thought that this passion could one day be my full-time job. I was always carrying my camera with me during my trips and I felt more and more absorbed by it. Step by step, my pictures became a small series with a unique angle, with a narrative; more and more, photography became the reason and goal of my travels and I accepted the idea to become a photographer.

What do you think triggers you to photograph in a certain moment? Is it planned or solely driven by intuition?

It's very much driven by intuition. I'm always seeking something, like a hunter. You need to observe the same place without moving at all to understand what landscape is all about and how you can make a mental image of it. I always start a project with a feeling, with a kind of connection to land, light or people and step by step, I build my own personal story with the place and the pictures are my vocabulary, the language I use to tell this story.

What is the story you want your pictures to tell?

It's difficult to choose only one story, I think that the most beautiful thing of photography is the ambiguity, the doubts and the mystery that could be behind a photography. The main thing I want for sure, is to create an emotion, a feeling that drive the spectator to be questioned. The best thing is when I succeed to create an image that sticks to the mind for no apparent reason. People react and are sensible to various things in my photography and that's the beauty of it.

Which city would you like to visit the most, and why?

I love Marseille in France. It's a city I want to move to and which truly fascinates me. Marseille sports a unique mix of a «mediterranean» way of life; the climate, light and sea in contrast with its city architecture and huge buildings. I love this kind of geographic and landscape, especially when you look at the most recently build buildings stuck to the mountain of Calanques—it's like a mirage.

Regarding your project Traversée: What was your intention, and how did you come up with the idea?

It's an idea that came from SNCF, the french railway company that asked me to propose a personal vision of the C-Line Paris. RER Line C is the second most important railway network of Paris, it goes through 180 kilometers from point 0 of Notre Dame to rural areas such as Dourdan, Etampes or Cergy Pontoise. I followed the rails to rediscover the surroundings and captured unexpected things along the line. RER is a part of the daily life of the inhabitants, it's the agora, one of the only places where all people from Le Grand Paris are crossing each other. It gave me the opportunity to rediscover and have a better understanding of the territory I always lived in.

Which project did you never finish?

A project about a place in France where I'm going to since I was born, Le Perigord. I always went there with my dad, and now I go with my child. It's not a real series, it's just pictures about the passing of time, maybe one day I'll do something with it, but for the now, it's just years of pictures that stay in my boxes.

What is that «one thing» you have never managed to photograph and is now gone for good?

In Perigord, my dad used to rent a special place, a part of an old castle; the owner was a fabulous woman who became my friend and a sort of Grandma. She was living alone in her huge castle and she was very special with a unique life philosophy. A few years ago I asked her if I could take some pictures of her but she refused because she thought she was too old. I tried to convince her, but it was too hard, and she finally died almost one year ago. I'm still sad to have lost her and to have never captured this memory.

If you could travel back/forth in time, what advice would you give your younger/older self?

Not really that much. I think that my younger self would just say to my older me to shut up and continue walking straight. I think that at the end, it's better not to change anything. Of course I would have loved to start photography when I was younger, to go to art school instead of a business one and to have quit my job before that. But no, at the end, I needed this maturity to know me better and to be ready for the big jump!

What do you prefer saying: «to take a photograph» or to «make a photograph», and why?

I've always been used to say «to take a photograph». If there is something, somewhere, at any time for me to «take», I become a hunter. There is a certain magical thing in the «Unforeseen» situation—Unforseen is also the name of my studio—that we can't control and the photography is able to reveal it somehow. But more and more, I also use «to make a photograph» because I like to have a direct influence on the picture, sometimes to change things and to create something new, even more mysterious.

What is the most interesting experience you have had while photographing?

Really difficult to choose. A photographer's life is always so intense because we need to live in the world, with the people and the places. Recently, I was working on a Greek island—which is my next personal project—and I lost myself at the top of a mountain during sunset, at a cliff that goes directly into the sea. I was alone, it was almost dark and I felt something strong, it's usually a very important feeling of loneliness that makes you live a special experience in the world.

If it wasn’t for photography, what would you be interested in doing instead?

Painter, writer, or Astronaut. 

How would you describe one of your pictures to a blind person?

A man is on a train platform, alone, just after sunset, the colors and the light are very soft and he's looking behind the photographer. He's a black dandy; it feels like he's from an old African Kingdom in the 19th century. He wears a very gentleman like mustache and a special leopard costume, from pants to jacket; like in a Tarantino movie. It's unusual to meet someone like him in the Paris Metro. Where is he going? Why is he dressed like that?

What are you currently working on, and—if there is—what is your next project or journey?

I'm currently working on a small Greek island to explore this island's «identity» and to create a personal testimony of my experiences on this island which I discovered almost 20 years ago. To me, it's a very important strip of land, where I go back to each year, like a «Pèlerinage», a traveller. I want to create a documentary between reality and fiction of this small rock lost in the Aegean sea. I'll go back there in a few months for my 5th trip since the beginning of the project last year and I'm always very excited to be back there, to hunt and live through an experience gained through loneliness.

Thank you, Clement!

Editorial Notes:

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Photography: Clement Chapillon (2020)
Location: Paris, France

Links: Website, Instagram, Unforseen Studio

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