Lez’ArTs interview with artist Benoit COURTI
Benoît Courti is a French professional photographer based in Paris. Self-taught, he began taking photos at the age of 20, then became a musician and composer for ten years. He didn’t learn photography, he didn’t take any particular lessons on technique, he didn’t go to school, he simply has an undeniable gift and a keen sense of observation coupled with an aptitude for accurate composition that hits the mark.
Benoit advances and perfects his skills in a purely intuitive way: when he has an idea, he gives it a go, the desire to try something or other guides him, and often his intuition pays off, as evidenced by his squares, which exude creativity and originality. In 2010, when he returned from Germany, he took up portraiture again. Encouragement from friends and family led him to pursue this artistic path. As a result, he decided to pursue his initial passion for black and white photography full-time.
Beyond his friends, he admits to having been inspired in portraiture by the work of Richard Avedon and Paolo Roversi for its particular texture. When he was making music, he found inspiration in images; now it’s the other way round. “I listen to music a lot more. When one takes up all the time, the other is on standby in a way, but leaves its trace in filigree.”
Speaking Hands © Benoit Courti
Aren’t these hands so evocative? I’m tempted to say that black sublimates the photograph here, but it doesn’t work without light, making the shot just as eloquent.
His equipment :
He is undoubtedly one of the great portrait photographers of his generation, giving black and white a very special flavor. His shots, which he describes as the result of encounters, convey unexpected moods and reveal particular atmospheres, capturing the unexpected in faces and postures to explore and define the other, all in a poetic, contrasting photographic impression. He shoots with a Canon 5D Mark II and fixed focal lengths, and for lighting, he uses continuous light exclusively. But he admits that he doesn’t attach much importance to equipment, except in the selection of his lenses: “I have no particular relationship with the camera, apart from the choice of optics. My preference for portraiture is for an 85 mm, which leaves a distance between me and the model during the shot.
His method :
Let’s return to the fundamental notion of the encounter in Benoît’s photographic work. The method he uses is not common, except among street or landscape photographers, i.e. for specialties where there’s no need for any particular complicity between the subject being photographed and the photographer. On the other hand, when we talk about Benoît’s portraits and realize that they are live compositions, not staged shots, it’s much more surprising! In fact, it’s the person he meets and shares the moment with who takes the photograph.
In general, at the start of a shooting session, he almost never knows how it’s going to happen, he has no particular idea, no scenario in mind, he leaves the subject free to evolve in front of the camera as he sees fit and Benoît simply acts on the moment of the shutter release. It’s the meeting and the unfolding of the exchange that creates the right moment, the right image, the ephemeral moment when the essential is shown and the ideal image is frozen.
Benoît Courti confides that sometimes this ideal moment arrives very quickly, but at other times it takes longer to take shape. In any case, when that moment arrives and he’s in the box, Benoît is aware of it, he knows it. He even declares that he doesn’t need to look at the image; he knows deep down that he can put an end to the session. “When I know I’ve got it? When I press down and it’s the right shot, I know it, I feel it, I don’t even need to see it, it just goes through the air!” That’s what he loves about photography, discovering the shot with its element of surprise.
Maestro
Play
In his Deep Black series, Benoit Courti has also tried his hand at photographing his second passion, music.
Benoit Courti is a former composer. What made him turn to photography?
“The end of a cycle. I’ve always loved photography, but due to a lack of time I’d never had the opportunity to devote myself to it seriously. I started taking my first portraits in 2010, and those close to me urged me to continue. Thanks to the Internet, I received my first orders and decided to take advantage of the opportunity to try this new experience. I spent a lot of time alone in the studio when I was working in music, and I love this new way of reaching out to others. Photography allows me to meet people from so many different worlds. I experience it as a real breath of fresh air.”
“Deep Black” series, how did the idea and theme come to him?
“Through this series, I’m trying to explore simple yet highly symbolic subjects. Losing notions of space and time, the better to focus on the essential. I like the way you can use this boundless black background, as if these moments were transposed into an infinity, dream memories.”
His plans :
Benoît’s project is to spend two weeks at a friend’s house in a village in the Manche department, where he’ll take portraits of everyone from the baker to the village warden, the fisherman and the mayor… For this idea, he’d like to work with a Leica or a body other than his own, so to this end he’s approaching various brands to borrow equipment and submit his project to them. He’s also thinking of working on white or gray backgrounds, as he says he’s already done a lot of work on black backgrounds.
It remains to be seen how he will define and use this concept of the light background, as he says that the black background makes him lose all notions of space and time, to concentrate on the essential. This refers to the intensely black “Deep Black” series, about which he says “I like the way you can use this black background without limits, as if these moments were transposed into an infinity, dream memories”. As you can see, there’s no shortage of projects for this creative artist with his original methods, so we’ll just have to be patient and wait for him to put all these ideas down on photo paper!
“Cut”
I was blown away by the power of the shots the first time I came across them. They are visually impressive, but at the same time carry a strong message or thought-provoking message. Benoit Courti manages to show his subject while leaving us room for reverie and interpretation.
The photograph of the pigtail is splendid in this sense; we oscillate between relief from the cut and imposed torture. The two hands don’t belong to the woman, who lets them be used. Is she not struggling out of resignation, or simply wishing to see her beautiful hair scattered on the ground ?
In the same way, this little girl, her eyes obstructed because “the world is crazy”, balances between all the violence supposedly facing her and her lack of freedom in the face of her reality. What’s interesting here is that the madness is in front of her, i.e. the photographer, and us. We are the danger hidden from the girl, the monster watching her through the lens.
Une merveilleuse découverte , magnifique .Un grand merci .
de rien
Superbe. De plus, j’adore le noir et blanc. Merci Véro pour cette découverte !!
merci Guilhem