gate2art – Guy Jean Genevier

I am an artist who uses photography to express himself. For ten years I did many night photographs in downtown Paris - France. At first, it was my artistic choice to use black and white film, sometimes pushed to ISO 1600. That probably was due to the fact that I liked and had studied the cinema and thus tried to use these techniques in photography. One of my self-assigned projects was to try to capture the essence of a train station when it was nearly deserted at night. In fact I am an artist who uses photography to express himself. What interests me about photography is that I can transform reality, that is, I can start with reality but change it or interpret it as I see it in my mind. Essentially, reality is like a starting point. My work, though, is subjective. I have a personal vision : what I imagine before I shoot. Good images do not come easily, they must be pursued, hunted down, and caught before it’s too late. Before taking a photograph I must feel that something is there, that it has been given to me to seize and that I really must have it. That is why I am fascinated with the night, because there is nothing there but essence : dark and light. Then I can take those images and rework them on computers until I am satisfied that my vision has been achieved.