Interview with Stephane Fedorowsky

• First of all, how did you decide to become a photographer? What did you start with? What are you up to now?

I've discovered the wide universe of photography upside down if I can say so. During my first year of art school in Paris, I've learned how to develop an image before knowing how to use a camera. The atmosphere, the face to face with oneself, the red light, I've felt like I was a mad scientist in a laboratory.

I've instantaneously started to experiment and began to make ‘Portraits’.

The darkroom becomes a key space for my artistic creation, moving beyond capturing moments through photography, to the creative process of developing and processing prints. Using techniques such as solarization, superimposition, and rayographs, each of my image undergoes metamorphoses to become unique prints. My work involves placing and manipulating objects on photosensitive paper, challenging our perceptions through his reconstructions. A central part of my approach involves “following then abandoning the image, finding it again, adding personal ingredients to reveal its inner life source, then fixing the image in space and time.”

Today I still work on a surrealistic picture which is my favorite area.

Since 3 years now I also work on heritage sites like the castle of Esquelbecq in the north of France. If the walls could talk...

• How did the idea to shoot a project with a plot come up to your mind? What new experience did you get? Why is this format interesting for you? Do you consider getting back to this genre?

My photos always tell stories, but the viewers see the image as a reflexion of what they feel, they surely don’t see the image in the same way.

From a single set up to a roman photo, the viewer doesn’t have the same choice.

Based on one sentence, one image, the viewer is guided inside an environment, across a story. He is taken by the hand from the beginning to the end.

Words and images are associated to create a seductive dream world, where the characters seem to evolve in another temporality, beyond reality, revealing another facet to his models. “Concealed in each of us another person, a person of one instance” 

I will keep working with this format, first because I've always been interesting and fascinating by movies and maybe it is my way to become a director on a movie set!

• “The Scarecrow who had a Heart” – tell us, how did the idea of creating this story appear? 

The scarecrow who had a heart come from a stain to the heart, an impossible love. Some people can create when they are joyful, for my experience, the most profound and soulful ideas came from a certain nostalgia, a profoundness tainted with dark shades. Travel from black to white, from dark to light.

• Tell us about the way images for the main characters created and a few words about the actors who were staring in your story?

The symbol of a scarecrow is not only what it appears to be in common sense. Often seen as a dark symbol, it can also reveal the opposite, a kind protector.

But loneliness was the strong feature of the main character.

The actors were some friends of mine who were used to act and embody a role. I chose them by the reflexion of who they were to bring a rayonnance of what the characters should be in a story.

• Tell us, how were you getting ready for shooting - what did you start with and what was considered at the last very moment?

I've started by writing the story, by making a storyboard. Then I ve developed the inner self of the characters plus costume, makeup and accessories, to finally find the place. A watermill in France.

2 steps were necessary, the first one was going in the windmill for 3 days with the crew, actors, make up artist, hair dresser….  The second one took place during 1 day in a studio set to get the lady of the water transformed.

• Were you following the storyboard or were there moments for improvisation?
  

There is always space for improvisation. Especially when you are on the set with everything reunified, actors, accessories ect.. everything becomes in motion…

At that moment ideas can fleurish.

• Tell us about the crew - who was working on the project and how were the tasks spread? What was your shooting day like? What scene was the most difficult?

It happened exactly as on a movie set… except that I was everywhere, watching on every detail. The scene on the boat was the most difficult one because of the water flow.

• The Photo Story “The Scarecrow who had a Heart” was shot with an analog camera. Tell us what technique did you use? What do like about the work in a “dark room”?

I used superimposition and différents techniques. 

What i like the most with the darkroom s work is to give a new life to the image while you are developing it. It is like painting with light.

• What do you like the most about the shooting of this story?

A constant tension between reality and fantasy.

• What would you advise photographers who want to shoot a Photo Story with a plot?

 ACTION !!!!!