Fabrice Delafon

1949 : Born in Paris, France
Very early on, I was fascinated by photography. After attending college at Université Paris Dauphine, I assiduously participated in Claudine and Jean-Pierre Sudre’s experimental photography class. The true objective of this course was growing-up. But most of all, we had freedom of vision and freedom to try things, backed by rigorous technical teaching and moral support. The curriculum also consisted of a continuous happening of images, music from Mozart to jazz, memorable spreads and wine tasting labs. Thank you, Claudine and Jean-Pierre.

Gobble-up everything. Save only the best and spit-out the rest. Early on, I made the firm resolve to produce three prints only and an artist’s proof of each picture. Then, destroy the negative.

1974 : Canada
This is a six year period where my work was still dominated by black and white. I began experimenting more abstract visions such as mirror effects and quasi-symmetries.

I believe the advent of photography in the XIX-th century is one of the major forces - at last a «true» representation of reality - that helped painting move away from classical representation. But for many photographers, « true» representation has become some kind of a trap. I believe picture taking can and should be more than an «art moyen» as Bourdieu describes it.

1985 : Desert crossing
For years, I feel I did nothing new. My tomorrows always ended up as pale reflections of yesterdays. I also suffered a blunting of skills from lack of use. Creatively it was like staring at blank walls. I was out of my mind, literally, as if at arms-length from myself.

During these years, I set-up and managed an industrial multi-media enterprise and discoursed very cogently, or so I thought, about photography.

2005 : Home again.

After almost twenty years of talking my friends to exasperation and myself to sleep, I was told: «Please shut-up, do it and then we’ll talk!» Shocked and scared, I finally did just that. Quite an awakening! I found light again, and colour, and digital technology. I re-sharpened my eye. Thank you my friends. And, for now, I’m still too busy catching-up to talk.