Thierry Pouzergues aka Anupthra

January 8, 2012 0

Your Full Name
Thierry Pouzergues aka Anupthra

Tell us about you.
Well, I come from CAHORS, a French medium town situated in the South-West of France (a geographic district called “LE LOT” and a historic area called “LE QUERCY”). This beautiful town as a Roman origin (its first name was CADURCORUM).

I grew up in this place where there is a lot of nice countryside (only 19 000 people live in CAHORS). The view over there is astonishing with wonderful hills, valleys with huge white rocks and lots of old oaks.

I consider myself as a “photo manipulator”. Unfortunately, Photo is not my main activity and, even if I try hard to make my creations known, I also work in a nursing home to live.

When was the first time you fell in love with photography? And why?
I think I felt in love with photography when I was a kid (8 or 9). My father told me first about photo and my first equipment was an “INSTANTATMATIC 126”. Then, later, one of my grand-uncle who I liked a lot, made me discover photography much further and the “ REFLEX” camera : that was when I bought my first one, an “OLYMPUS OM10” which was a kind of real revelation to me. While I was studying at school in a technical stream, I could take some lessons in photo at home.

At that time, I decided to buy a “NIKON F301” and I began to shoot many pictures that I could read with a slide projector and print in a FUJICHROME format.

Then came the time when I became frustrated by the REFLEX since it was an expensive way to print photos and I had to wait too long to see the result of my pictures, even if I had my own dark room to print my black and white pictures. I wanted to express myself much further and as soon as the numeric photo started to offer a good quality in photo, I bought a small FUJI 1M PIXEL and then, I could achieve my goal to have a fast print, to keep it and diffuse it on the web and most of all to create and modify pictures easily.

Where are you located now?
I live near TOULOUSE, a French town in the South-East of France, in MONDONVILLE, a small village. Here, life is nice and the view beautiful (I just regret there is no sea shore!)

What makes your works stand-out or different from other photographers?
I don’t think I’m so different from others photographers but I would say that I’m led by an everlasting curiosity and by the will of express my emotions and my imagination through my work. Eclecticism is also one of the elements that is typical in my personality: I like to photograph any kind of situation and anything I see or anybody if I have inspiration. I often also create pieces by transforming reality to suit the ideas I have as surrealism style.

Curiosity is the main thing that leads my pictures and I always look around me to find new scenes for my photos, even when I go to work or anywhere else. I like to experiment and I’m always working on several projects that I set up by following my feelings. Productivity is not an aim for me; I’m just trying to do things when I feel it. Of course, it doesn’t always match with the idea of being professional but I’m trying to cure that! People I shoot know that they have to be patients sometimes to see the final result (I apologize for that, shame on me! LOL! ).

What motivates you?
My only motivation is to express myself, share my artistic world and I wish I could be a professional photographer exclusively. I know that I’m not the only one in this case and that we all need to create something that will last in time. I’m convinced that an artist has generosity by sharing and showing his work but he also has narcissism in his personality since I’d like to leave something behind me for people, for my daughter, for her future kids etc… In a way, I don’t want to be here as a useless person and I do my best for that.

How does working professionally differ from being an amateur in your opinion?
It differs in many ways; you need to have: more method, more discipline even if your mind is creative and curious. You also have to own some good hardware and to find money enough to buy professional equipment that will make the result you want much easier and credible.

Then, you have to find models and partners who will be interested enough in your ability to become some kinds of clients. In a way, you have to use customer approach to promote your work which can appear as a non sense in an artistic domain but that’s the only way to proceed to live by your own art.

If you could meet w/ any artist (one) past or present, whom would it be?
Leonardo Da Vinci!

He is for me THE symbol of that spirit of freedom, imagination, creativity and will of experimenting in any kind of domain. He gave a new dimension to art and succeeded in his plan to invent new technique which made our world different and was a visionary man. I wish sometimes that I could know a little bit of what he knew and have a talk with him as a kid listening to a genius. I imagine him when he had the ideas that changed our whole way of living today and our vision on things.

Who (or what) is your biggest influence?
My biggest influence is the world of art in its entirety: painting, drawing, music… I would also say surrealism, cubism, pointillism, photography of the early years etc… That’s the reason why I like to mix many techniques to have a result that can show my interest in all these disciplines. Actually, my main will is to go as close as possible to my imagination and to create what see more than what people see.

What is your life moto?
This is a difficult question and that can bring to answer so many things… But I would answer: love. Love for my daughter Alexia, for my girlfriend Claudine. Love as the wound you feel when someone you love leaves you since pain is an inspiration too. Creation allows me to express all my feelings, bad or happy. For instance, my creation which is called “Scène de…” (“Scene of…”) can illustrate this. In fact, emotions are my life moto.

Tell us several good online-resources for photographers you recommend visiting?
http://www.deviantart.com/ : an intra-community web site for all the people who want to make their work known worldwide.
http://500px.com/ popular: you’ll find good photographers and a nice showcase for your portfolios.
http://photoshoptutorials.ws/: a great web site to learn about PHOTOSHOP
http://www.somethingwelike.com/ : such a great site that offers huge opportunities to artists like me to make their work known! ; )

Do you have a style that you relate to the most?
I’d say surrealism. This style appears a lot in my creations and in the ones to come. One of my pieces called “MODERN PINNOCCHIO” shows this for example. I have several projects that I started; they are hard to set up and will take time; I think that two of them will be released in 2012.

—–

Can you offer any advice on how to build-up a portfolio / ‘getting your foot in the door’ for our readers wishing to start a career in this line of photography?
In my mind, you have to keep your own personality first and not copy others. If you do as others, you‘ll be a good graphic designer perhaps, but not someone original, not someone people will remember. If you can offer an original portfolio that reveals your work as an identified work, you’re on the right way to me.

Moreover, you have to take care of one thing: if a portfolio must be punchy, it must stay clear and not in a style that could be too over-ornate… Otherwise, I think that good references in your creation can be a good add.

Name 3 of your favorite (art/photography) books/ magazines.
Essentially, French magazines like “CHASSEURS D’IMAGES” (I had the luck to have a full page about my work and where two of my creations were developed (“Scène de…” released in 2009)), “PHOTO”, an international magazine that also organizes a great photo contest on several themes. I’d also say “PHOTOSCHOOL” where you can find good tutorials about Photoshop and good tricks to succeed in graphic creation.

Do you have anyone/company you would like to collaborate/work together?
Being an eclectic artist, as I explained it before, leads me to give several answers. I’d love to take part in the universe of a mythic music band like PINK FLOYD, a band that always inspired me by its creativity in music and visual expression.

Then, in the world of photo, I wish I could work with photographers as DAVID LACHAPELLE because I think we both have the same kind of sensibility and the same way to see things. Collaborating with this kind of artist would be great and a huge help in my own work.

In cinema, I’d also love to work for TIM BURTON and his wonderful artistic mind and way to create, even just by being a set photographer for one of his movies. Otherwise, I’ve already collaborate with a gifted French artist called NOEM and we both appreciated to exchange our ideas to create an artistic environment that could suit his universe and mine. You can see our work and his music here (http://noemworld.fr/) and here http://noemleblog.fr/.

Thus, the graphic creation you can see here illustrate one of his song (its great title “BAROCKN’ROLL” was found by nOem who also gave a graphic contribution to the piece!); it was shot two years ago with SHAM, a wonderful model from Belgium). Working with nOem and Sham led us to work for me too, as you can see here in the picture I called “MODERN PINNOCCHIO”.

What are the photography equipment(s) do you currently own?
I use a REFLEX FUJI S5 PRO, few NIKON lenses from wide-angle lens to tele-lens. I also have some photoflashes, photo-diffusers and a good photo tripod. Otherwise, I often go to many garage sales and secondhand markets to find things that inspire me and that I use in my creations to make it original.

Name 3 softwares (or tools) that you use the most, and tell us the function of each of them.
PHOTOSHOP (CS2 for my part) : to me, the best!
PHOTOHOP ELEMENTS 9 that allows you to organize your pictures and use TOPAZ LABS plug-in for instance (TOPAZ is a good way to have effects which imitate HDR).

If you have online portfolio, what is the URL?
www.pantosite.com and http://anupthra.deviantart.com

—–