What inspired you to create artwork and become an artist? (events, feelings, experiences...)
My encounter with the artistic world began at a very young age. My brother, ten years older than me, a photographer, needed a model to create his creations and from the age of 7, he made me take strange poses and modified his photos during his film development. I then immersed myself in his technique which revealed my soul as an artist much more than as a model 😉. I acquired all the technical bases from him and as a teenager I began my first significant photographic creations.
What is your artistic background, the techniques and subjects you have experimented with to date?
For a long time, I kept my creations to myself, purely out of modesty. First an architectural photographer, I needed to get closer to humans. Capturing these moments of emotion, driven by the need to freeze these magical moments of everyday life, capturing what everyone sees without really seeing them... So I worked as a street photographer for two decades before having the guts to work with real models. But my choice only focused on people who had been skinned alive, people marked by life in order to capture the messages and the feelings that I saw in them, in their looks.
It was at the same time that I joined the Marseille photo café. Where I was able to show my work for the first time, exchange with other professionals and amateurs. They have all been extremely important in my creative journey, in my improvement and my personal development. They brought me my first recognition from my fathers, which gave me the first building block of my artistic development.
I then began to also develop creations in digital painting using the same creative process while allowing me to complete a section that I could not achieve directly in photography. If I had to make a metaphor to help you understand, photography would be my right hand and digital painting my left hand. Inseparable from who I am and totally complementary, finally allowing me to fully express myself as a whole.
What are the 3 aspects that differentiate you from other artists, making your work unique?
All the professionals in the field gave me essentially the same advice. To succeed, you have to specialize in a field, find your niche, have your own signature. Otherwise, you will never have the slightest recognition...
I chose not to make a choice. My only motivation is creative, my inspiration is emotional and poetic. I do not chase glory or recognition, but after the feelings, the emotions and the beauty that is in each of us and in everything that surrounds us.
There is nothing more boring and disappointing than a photo or a work that does not convey the slightest emotion to the viewer.
Where does your inspiration come from?
My inspiration is therefore multiple and simple at the same time… my subject, whatever it may be, must resonate within me. I never know how and never want to cheat in this sense. I would only lose my integrity without it.
What is your artistic approach? What visions, sensations or feelings do you want to evoke in the viewer?
My goal is to show through my creations, whatever the field or subject, the love in each of us, our suffering, our poetry, our beauty!
We live in a world that goes a thousand miles an hour, where we no longer know our neighbors, where we don't look at others, very individualistic and self-centered. Where we are afraid of our differences, closing ourselves a little more every day...
But deep down, aren't we all the same? Don't we live in a magical and wonderful environment?
Take the time to immerse yourself and immerse yourself in my creations. See if you don't perceive this universal beauty, this goodness which is very present there!
If you dive into it sincerely and without any preconceptions, then you should see it. Develop tolerance, empathy, love and respect.
What is the process of creating your works? Spontaneous or with a long preparatory process (technique, inspiration from art classics or other)?
A bit of all this over time. I work on long-term projects as much as on more intuitive and spontaneous projects.
For example, for all of my Parisian photos, I walk and wander around the city a lot, looking for the right composition, while letting myself be surprised by the unexpected and the opportunity of the presence of a simple puddle...
Do you use a particular working technique? if yes, can you explain it?
I don't really have any particular technique, but I particularly like long exposures, day and night. The result is often astonishing for the viewer, but beyond that, it brings an additional dimension to the way we look at our world.
Are there any innovative aspects in your work? Can you tell us which ones?
I think that the innovative aspect in my work is its diversity, which makes it rich and allows me to have absolutely no limits or prohibitions except those that I impose on myself.
My vision, my experience, my values must be reflected in my work.
Do you have a format or medium that you are most comfortable with? if yes, why ?
Each format or support is decided at the very moment of the genesis of the creative process, it is obvious to me, I preview the final work before even creating it strictly speaking.
Where do you produce your works? At home, in a shared workshop or in your own workshop? And in this space, how do you organize your creative work?
Concerning photography, it is mainly outdoors, whatever the weather or the schedule, and more rarely in my studio set up in my home. The post-processing of course is carried out in my studio, just like all my digital paintings.
Many of my works are physically stored there, ready to join my clients' walls.
In this wait, their presence both inspires me and reassures me. In the same way I think that an architect surrounds himself with his models or lithographs of his past projects.
Does your work lead you to travel to meet new collectors, for fairs or exhibitions? If so, what does it mean to you?
When I travel for creative purposes, I need to travel alone. We cannot impose hours of wandering on our loved ones, no matter how understanding they may be.
And then the encounters are not the same, it is much easier to approach people in the street while being alone than a whole family coming across a stranger.
It is particularly during these discussions that we become aware that whatever our differences, of whatever nature, we are all basically the same... We experience the same emotions, the same fears, the same feelings, and that we ultimately all live on one and the same planet without imaginary borders…
How do you imagine the evolution of your work and your career as an artist in the future?
I always think I will keep my poetic and humanist thread.
The emphasis on universal beauty, because we are all beautiful. Beauty is not just physical, fortunately.
What is the theme, style or technique of your latest artistic production?
I tend to work on several artistic projects simultaneously, whether in photography or digital painting, thus being able to move from one to the other while moving forward and letting certain other ideas and renderings mature and evolve.
Currently, my closest project to completion is a photographic series on Parisian nights.
Can you tell us about your most important exhibition experience?
Without hesitation, work carried out on behalf of the association “Mélissa l’Union de Tous” which works to promote the inclusion of people with autism. The goal is to have an innovative approach by highlighting parents of children with autism and revealing their personality as everyday superheroes. [GLORIOUS HEROES]
Beyond the exhibition, the meetings with the president of the association, the families, the visitors, deeply moved and moved me.
If you could create a famous work in the history of art, which one would you choose? And why ?
It is not a photograph but it would certainly be “The Soft Watch” by Mr. Salvador Dali.
symbolizing this battle we all fight against time while making a subtle reference to Mr. Albert Einstein's theory of relativity.
If you could invite any famous artist (dead or alive) to dinner, who would it be? How would you suggest he spend the evening?
Difficult question… Although I would very much like to exchange face-to-face with Mr. Victor Hugo over a good dinner in an intimate Parisian restaurant, so that he can passionately tell me about his romantic feelings, I think I would choose Mr. Irving Penn for all of his work of course, but for having succeeded in sublimating and reinventing still lifes... I think that for the place, a picnic in a field of poppies is naturally necessary.
Olimpia Gaia Martinelli
