Your Full Name
First name: Jean-Sébastien, last name: Monzani
Tell us about you.
I am a Swiss and French freelance photographer, graphic-designer, illustrator and video-artist born in 1975.Most of my work is based on portraits and short-stories, that involve emotion, elegance, simplicity and a strong sense of composition and colour.
Over the years, it has evolved from simple improvised portraits-sessions to carefully planned sessions or short-movies, involving a scenario or storyboard, and sometimes extra surreal elements.The narrative part is quite important and specific to my work.I’m also self-taught. I’ve got a PhD in Computer Graphics but this was really from a very technical point of view and didn’t help much.
In your opinion, what would be the secret ingredients to become a great photographer?
I don’t often work as a pro-photographer but rather as a graphic-designer. The challenge about being a photographer (and probably many other jobs) is to enjoy what you do. That’s why I reject most of the offers I get since they are, well, boring. If I shoot someone or something, it needs to be creative.
Actually, photography is a form of art that is rather easy to master, in my humble opinion. Making something unique and original still remains difficult, though.
Where are you located?
I’m currently living in Lausanne, Switzerland. It’s close to Geneva.
What is the most fascinating part of being a photographer?
I love the synergy that I develop with models or actors. It’s an intense source of inspiration.
Where do you get inspirations from?
I like reading books, looking at pictures in the street, illustrations, magazines, books, movies, or the internet. Challenging myself to create something I haven’t done in the past is also a strong motivation to me. I actually devote almost all of my free time to planning new artistic work. It’s a constant process that takes days and effort.
Do you promote/ sell/ showcase your work? If so, how?
I show my images and videos on artistic on-line communities such as deviantart.com or vimeo.com, but the work I get I usually by recommendations from former clients. Actually I don’t actively promote myself or look for jobs, they just come to me.
If you have a long range goals in your life. What is it?
I would love to get more budget to create more impressive videos or images.
What types of assignment/ project are you attracted the most? Why so?
Commercially, I love to have freedom and creativity. When the client trusts me, it’s really great to discuss and come up with a new idea.
On my personal work, I mainly look for emotion. It’s really the most important point to me.
Who is a photographer that you look up to? Why so?
I love Gregory Crewdson and his stunning images full of creativity and incredible props and lights.
Describe a difficult work/ project situation and how would you overcome it?
I don’t like when clients ask me to do uncreative jobs and I’ll generally simply turn them down. Otherwise, there is no difficulty that can’t be solved by discussion. What’s important is that clients respect me and my work, and don’t consider me as just a tool to execute a task. Fortunately, 95% of the time, clients are quite respectful so it is not really a problem.
What do you think about the Internet and how it is affecting our lifestyle?
I love how we can network and discuss with artists all over the globe, without geographic problems. The net is also a great source of inspiration and a vector of promotion. On the minus side, I hate when people rip my photos illegally.
If you could turn back time, how would you do things differently?
Generally speaking, I quite enjoyed how I made progress overtime so I won’t change much things.
How do you keep your work fresh? Do you need to consciously adapt your style or does it progress naturally?
I’m not thinking about my style, but what I’ve already done. What’s important is to go beyond my skills and push my own artistic boundaries. It’s hard and frustrating but really rewarding. So I haven’t consciously develop a style, it just grew by itself.
Name 3 of your favorite (art) books/ magazines.
My favourites books are:
* Tales from outer suburbia by Shaun Tan: a wonderful creative book full of imagination and touching stories. Shaun is one of my fav illustrators as well.
*The Wind-up Chronicle by Haruki Murakami: one of the best novel in magic-realism (something I quite relate to)
*Novecento: a touching short novel by Alessandro Baricco
What is your life motto?
Don’t think of problems until they really happen.
In what kind of a work environment do you do your best work?
I like my desk: quiet, with some background music and indirect daylight.
What do you like the sound of?Why so?
I tend to get annoyed quite quickly by noises and sounds so the most inspiring sound for me is just… silence.
Chitchat: Jean-Sébastien Monzani
Your Full Name
First name: Jean-Sébastien, last name: Monzani
Tell us about you.
I am a Swiss and French freelance photographer, graphic-designer, illustrator and video-artist born in 1975.Most of my work is based on portraits and short-stories, that involve emotion, elegance, simplicity and a strong sense of composition and colour.
Over the years, it has evolved from simple improvised portraits-sessions to carefully planned sessions or short-movies, involving a scenario or storyboard, and sometimes extra surreal elements.The narrative part is quite important and specific to my work.I’m also self-taught. I’ve got a PhD in Computer Graphics but this was really from a very technical point of view and didn’t help much.
In your opinion, what would be the secret ingredients to become a great photographer?
I don’t often work as a pro-photographer but rather as a graphic-designer. The challenge about being a photographer (and probably many other jobs) is to enjoy what you do. That’s why I reject most of the offers I get since they are, well, boring. If I shoot someone or something, it needs to be creative.
Actually, photography is a form of art that is rather easy to master, in my humble opinion. Making something unique and original still remains difficult, though.
Where are you located?
I’m currently living in Lausanne, Switzerland. It’s close to Geneva.
What is the most fascinating part of being a photographer?
I love the synergy that I develop with models or actors. It’s an intense source of inspiration.
Where do you get inspirations from?
I like reading books, looking at pictures in the street, illustrations, magazines, books, movies, or the internet. Challenging myself to create something I haven’t done in the past is also a strong motivation to me. I actually devote almost all of my free time to planning new artistic work. It’s a constant process that takes days and effort.
Do you promote/ sell/ showcase your work? If so, how?
I show my images and videos on artistic on-line communities such as deviantart.com or vimeo.com, but the work I get I usually by recommendations from former clients. Actually I don’t actively promote myself or look for jobs, they just come to me.
If you have a long range goals in your life. What is it?
I would love to get more budget to create more impressive videos or images.
What types of assignment/ project are you attracted the most? Why so?
Commercially, I love to have freedom and creativity. When the client trusts me, it’s really great to discuss and come up with a new idea.
On my personal work, I mainly look for emotion. It’s really the most important point to me.
Who is a photographer that you look up to? Why so?
I love Gregory Crewdson and his stunning images full of creativity and incredible props and lights.
Describe a difficult work/ project situation and how would you overcome it?
I don’t like when clients ask me to do uncreative jobs and I’ll generally simply turn them down. Otherwise, there is no difficulty that can’t be solved by discussion. What’s important is that clients respect me and my work, and don’t consider me as just a tool to execute a task. Fortunately, 95% of the time, clients are quite respectful so it is not really a problem.
What do you think about the Internet and how it is affecting our lifestyle?
I love how we can network and discuss with artists all over the globe, without geographic problems. The net is also a great source of inspiration and a vector of promotion. On the minus side, I hate when people rip my photos illegally.
If you could turn back time, how would you do things differently?
Generally speaking, I quite enjoyed how I made progress overtime so I won’t change much things.
How do you keep your work fresh? Do you need to consciously adapt your style or does it progress naturally?
I’m not thinking about my style, but what I’ve already done. What’s important is to go beyond my skills and push my own artistic boundaries. It’s hard and frustrating but really rewarding. So I haven’t consciously develop a style, it just grew by itself.
Name 3 of your favorite (art) books/ magazines.
My favourites books are:
* Tales from outer suburbia by Shaun Tan: a wonderful creative book full of imagination and touching stories. Shaun is one of my fav illustrators as well.
*The Wind-up Chronicle by Haruki Murakami: one of the best novel in magic-realism (something I quite relate to)
*Novecento: a touching short novel by Alessandro Baricco
What is your life motto?
Don’t think of problems until they really happen.
In what kind of a work environment do you do your best work?
I like my desk: quiet, with some background music and indirect daylight.
What do you like the sound of?Why so?
I tend to get annoyed quite quickly by noises and sounds so the most inspiring sound for me is just… silence.
If you have online portfolio, what is the URL?
For a quick view at my work, here is my portfolio: http://www.jsmonzani.com
For a complete look, please visit: http://www.simplemoment.com
Here is a video that you can promote: http://www.vimeo.com/8256984
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