UNDER THE INFLUENCE & NOEMIFICATION by Nicolas Guerin

“I am self-taught. I learned photography alone, from books. Books have been my only teachers.

For 10 years, I exclusively made portraits of filmmakers. Between two doors, as fast as possible, as best as I could. For others, for magazines, to learn. The fame of my subjects allowed me to stay in the shadows for a long time. My life then was discreet. I didn’t drink, I didn’t smoke, I didn’t dance. I never had a taste for provocation nor for excess. I was grey. An average grey.

I was a son without revolt, a student without history. I walked the beat. Without surprise. A life drawn in advance, by circumstances, geography, family. Until I was 36, I had the impression that I had not disobeyed, and that I had not really lived anything worth telling. A kind of boredom that doesn’t say its name.

And then, a foolish love. And my silent life became noisy.”

Nicolas Guérin

Books

UNDER THE INFLUENCE ( 2010-2017 )

Volume A

Our years of being wild, signed and limited edition of 100 copies

224 pages, sewn notebooks, paperback, hardcover, landscape format 20CM x 30CM

UNDER THE INFLUENCE ( 2017-2020 )

Volume B
Ashes of time, signed and limited edition of 100 copies
224 pages, sewn notebooks, Japanese binding, soft cover, landscape format 20CM x 30CM

NOEMIFICATION, (2020-2022 )

Signed and limited edition of 200 copies

208 pages, sewn notebooks, Swiss binding, semi-rigid cover, portrait format, 26CM x 20 CM

Nicolas Guerin Biography

After studying philosophy, then film history at the Sorbonne, Nicolas Guérin learned photography by himself, from books.
For more than 20 years, he has been the photographer for the magazine POSITIF, alongside Michel Ciment, and has accompanied the editors on interviews with filmmakers and their performers, in Paris, Cannes, Berlin or Venice.

The greatest names of the seventh art pass in front of his lens, from Quentin Tarantino to Meryl Streep, from Wong Kar Wai to Jane Campion. Daniel Craig, Tilda Swinton, Clint Eastwood, Tim Burton, David Lynch, Woody Allen, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese…

His portraits quickly brought him international recognition ( GQ, ESQUIRE, TIMES, GUARDIAN, IO DONNA, LE MONDE, LIBERATION… ) and attracted the attention of luxury brands who entrusted him with the realization of advertising images ( BREGUET, ROLEX, TECHNOMARINE, JEAGGER-LECOULTRE, LONGINES… ) .

His work is distributed worldwide by the agency Contours / Getty.

In 2010 Nicolas GUERIN moves to a studio in Montreuil where he begins a more intimate work, where nude and fashion are mixed.
For 12 years, he has been photographing his model friends and the women who share his life. His images document his daily life, his obsessions, under the direct influence of the personality of his models.

Rewards Available

Fine art print

Format available : 45x60cm, 60x80cm, 90x120cm, 120x160cm

UNDER THE INFLUENCE

Volume A

Fine Art prints, signed & numbered.
Limited edition of 30 copies.

UNDER THE INFLUENCE

Volume B

Fine Art prints, signed & numbered.
Limited edition of 30 copies.

NOEMIFICATION

Fine Art prints, signed & numbered.
Limited edition of 30 copies.

Interview with Nicolas Guérin

When did you start doing nude photography?
In a really serious way in 2010, when I met Sheri. But the nude was my first subject when I started photography as an amateur. I was 15 years old, I was in love, and I wanted to keep a trace of this moment. The skills and requirements have changed, but the desire remains the same. To live my life, and to photograph those I love: my loves, my friends.

These 3 books represent 12 years of personal work, why did you wait so long?
Because these books are a puzzle of very intimate emotions for me, and they could not be done before, I was not ready. Before, I was in the moment of living and producing the images, without analyzing too much. Those years went by very quickly, I was working for the cultural press, I was traveling a lot. I went quickly from one project to another. Not only did I not have time to look in the rear-view mirror, but above all I did not see the point. It is only when I found myself alone after the departure of the woman I loved that I understood the need to question myself on my trajectory, and to better understand my obsessions. I stopped running, I left Paris, I changed my life. The only constant is that I always photograph exclusively the people I love.

Why this restriction?
I don’t see it as a restriction at all, it is a major emotional choice. The heroes of my adolescence were filmmakers (Chaplin, Von Sternberg, Bergman, Antonioni, Godard, Sautet, Cassavetes, Allen…), artists who filmed the same actresses for a long time. We can add Visconti when he filmed Helmut Berger, the connection between desire and inspiration remains the same. I am fascinated by this idea, fascinated to see Karina evolve under Godard’s gaze, Ullamn struggle with Bergman, or Dietrish triumph with Von Sternberg. I like the idea of a theatre company, and of loyalty. That you can deepen your work always with the same teams. And above all it makes the work fun, and moving. Doing the umpteenth shoot with the same friend, it’s an opportunity to meet again, and to show each other that we care about each other, that the connection exists and that it resists to time. A model I’m working with for the first time can’t give me what the one I’ve known for ten years can. I like the idea of making a portrait of a woman as a puzzle, and over ten years. The women I photograph are strong personalities, complex, changing. In 3 hours of time how can I show all that? Over ten years it becomes possible, and exciting.

Some of the photographers I admire the most have also had particular attachments to some of their models, this is the case for Guy Bourdin with Nicole Meyer, Araki with Kaori or Roversi with Natalia Vodianova for example. And it’s not a coincidence that the most beautiful images of Natalie Vodianova are those of Roversi. He knows her best. For me, nothing really beautiful is made without this registration in the duration. There are of course exceptions, people with dazzling talent who are capable of everything and immediately. I am slow and faithful, I cultivate my attachments so that the links last. I need to focus my desire and my inspiration. I don’t just want to make one more nude photo, I want to photograph that woman at that moment. My inspiration is never abstract, it is embodied in these remarkable women, to whom I am faithful. One does not photograph the women one loves, as one photographs others.

Read the complete interview here >