PHOTOGRAPHER ROMAIN FABRY
A FIRE FROM THE INSIDE – a Photography Project by Romain Fabry
I was born and grew up in the Paris area, just next to the towers of La Défense, and spent my childhood on these huge concrete slabs, where the upper class and the poor classes from the immigrant population mix. It is this extremely broad cultural mixture surrounded by contemporary urbanism that my aesthetic developed. After graduating from film school, I turned to photography, which allowed me to combine my passion for architecture.
Tell us about your greatest inspirations or inluences please.
The first big visual impression I received in my childhood was the discovery of David Lynch's work. His way of seeing the world and of interpreting the forms, were, I think at that time, a solution in phase with the adolescence that I lived. It allowed me to create an imaginary side, an alternative way to appreciate emotions and time. In the same logic, Jean Luc Godard brought a higher formal and conceptual radicality. It was also the beginning of a political understanding of forms and visual work as a whole. Then, in phase with the place where I lived and the aesthetic which was daily to me, Jacques Tati and Eric Rohmer have been a great source of inspiration. I think of two very interesting films that are Playtime and L'ami de mon ami. Two visions quite close to the new world, because of their criticism of a soul-less capitalist urbanism but at the same time of an attraction for a certain aesthetic of modernity. And more contemporary, Romain Gavras and Gaspar Noé, who complete the artistic and political idea in the theme of urban life.
How are the current trends in technology and innovation afecting your work as a creative?
We live in an incredible time, artistically abundant, where technology is in exponential evolution. For example, we see the arrival of the premises of AI, for the visual creation in particular. It is a tool that artists will seize, as a medium but also as a conceptual tool for more global reflection on our world. It is with a certain concern that I see the world digitizing itself for the benefit of an overheated liberal system, and with a certain excitement in front of the creative capacities that this new world offers us.
We’d love to hear more about your creative process.
For me, the creation phase is quite solitary. I incorporate a lot of improvisation and wandering. As for many people, the music carries me by giving the overall mood and the essential energy. Then I let myself go.
What do you think of the art world and how it works in general?
The democratization of art and its access in the last decade has shaken up the sector. A great number of young artists arrives each year with a new vision. This is something that is very positive and extremely enriching. I think that history has never known a period as culturally rich as today. The negative point of all this is the way these professions are considered in the economic system. Creative people are now competed with each other on a global scale. It is therefore very complicated to make a living from these activities. It would be necessary to have a voluntarist policy of help to the creative scene and of valorization, but I do not think that it is the way that our leaders take today.
What does wellbeing mean to you and anything in particular that you practice?
A great existential question. I think that well-being is something complicated and at the same time so simple (when health and money are not an issue of course). Personally my method is to get out of the virtual world and enjoy the people around me. This is already a good start.
Is there anything else you’d like to share?
Thank you for this interview, and for the opportunity to share the visuals for this project A FIRE FROM INSIDE.
