LUC BASSOMPIERRE INTERVIEW
Luc Bassompierre
Photographer · France
French photographer Luc Bassompierre works across two worlds that rarely meet: fashion and photojournalism. His clients include CNN, the Oslo Freedom Forum, and Franck Muller Watches. His most personal project, GAZAW, took him inside Gaza and inside the history of the Warsaw Ghettos, seeking peace through images that refuse to look away.
Luc Bassompierre came to photography full time after living in many different countries, a colorful career path, and the 2008 recession. This is how he ended up doing his dream job. The career spans Franck Muller watches and breaking news for AM New York. The Amber Lounge for Formula One Grand Prix in Monaco, Abu Dhabi, New Delhi, and Singapore alongside the Human Rights Foundation and the Oslo Freedom Forum. These are not contradictions. They are the same eye, trained on different subjects.
Luc Bassompierre It's hard to pin point my greatest influences as I can't define myself as a type of photographer because I love both fashion and photojournalism. I love fashion photographers like Helmut Newton and Mario Testino, to photojournalists like James Nachtwey and Arthur Fellig, aka Weegee. But I think there has never been a photographer who encompasses both those worlds quite as beautifully as Richard Avedon, with his great fashion work and his ability to capture the true human spirit in portraits like those from In the American West.
Luc Bassompierre When I first started studio photography I worked on a project on female body builders. I wasn't sure exactly how I was going to shoot this and the project meant a lot to me because I thought I would be a bar against which my peers would measure me, and I would also see if I had the technical ability to orchestrate a shoot with such amazing and different women. Naturally I was intimidated at first but as the shoot continued I felt more comfortable and natural. It was really a turning point where I said to myself that I am a photographer, and more importantly that I liked the work I was producing.
Luc Bassompierre I do like to float about all the superficiality and fun of fashion and would be lying if I said I wouldn't love to do a kick-ass fashion campaign that brought to life one of my ideas. But in my heart, without sounding cheesy, a dream project would be tied to bringing attention to real problems. I think one can get very creative in translating pain.
Luc Bassompierre "You're clearly obsessed with women, is this the only pathetic way you have of getting close to naked women. Do they realize that you have such little talent?" This was said to me by an editor in New York, who of course will remain anonymous.
Whilst working for the Human Rights Foundation and Oslo Freedom Forum, I had the privilege of hearing a speech delivered by Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish, author of I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor's Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity. He spoke about losing his three daughters and niece in a strike by Israeli forces, and how more than ever he believes that the only way forward is peace and reconciliation. This speech was the genesis of my idea for GAZAW.
I seek to promote peace through my images, hoping to provoke the viewer primarily to question, if not to act, in order to bring differing perspectives closer. Various aspects of life in Gaza are represented here, with my principal focus a conceptual juxtaposition of Gaza and the Warsaw Ghettos, corresponding in nature but not in extent, in order to trigger in the viewer's mind a blur that resonates as familiar.
Palestinian parents allowed me to photograph their children wearing an armband bearing the star of David against the stark background of a wall, to illustrate the classification and subjugation of Palestinians by a people who were history's victims in the Warsaw Ghettos. Once in Gaza, the realisation of the depth of potential my project held became ever more evident. I changed only the location of students from their actual classroom to one filled with rubble and shrapnel. The ghostly mood is a result of our inertia in the face of their anticipation.
My journey also led me inside the Rafah tunnels, the lungs of Gaza, to document the same tunnels that have been compared to those used by Jews to smuggle consumer goods and medical supplies into the Ghetto from the Aryan side. The more I shot, the more eager I was to shoot. Each photo a piece of the unsolved puzzle growing before my eyes.
"I hope that you who are reading these words will look at my images and see Gaza, but more importantly that you will look beyond, to the promotion of peace and the putting aside of differences."
View the full GAZAW project → lucbassompierre.com
From the GAZAW project · Gaza · Luc Bassompierre · All rights reserved
From the GAZAW project · Gaza · Luc Bassompierre · All rights reserved
"I think one can get very creative in translating pain."
Luc Bassompierre"I haven't said my last word or taken my last photo."
Luc Bassompierre
