All images by Julien Benhamou. Used with permission.
Julien Benhamou began as an assistant photographer in the world of fashion and advertising. Today he is the official photographer of the Paris Opera Ballets, and his project called Blessed Unrest showcases a beautiful but dark interpretation of the vulnerability of people through use of dance.
The series is creative and shows off dancers in thought provoking poses using an original concept.
Phoblographer: Talk to us about how you got into photography / What got you into portraiture?
Julien: As a teenager I was always interested in making portraits of my family and friends. I became aware that this medium was a great way to interact with people and because I was quiet shy, it helped me a lot to socialize. It became very quickly a passion.
I went to school for photography, then I became assistant of Valerie Belin and François Rousseau. I started to make some projects, and one of them was exhibited in the Ministry of Culture.
Phoblographer: Blessed Unrest is a very surreal series. So what was the inspiration, motivation and idea behind the series?
Julien: It is a series I’m making with the dancer and choreographer Aurélien Dougé, from Inkörper Company. We tried to create images that contain poses that represent the body showed in its vulnerable, mortal and ephemeral dimension. It is a much darker work than what I usually do.
Phoblographer: Every photographer tries to find some way to creatively express a message in their images. So when you were creating these, what messages were you trying to get across in the images?
Julien: The aim of my work is clearly aesthetics. I’m try to show poetry in images.
Phoblographer: Where did the creative vision come from for these images and how were the concepted?
Julien: It depends; Sometimes we talk with Aurélien Dougé and we try to think about a place and some accessories, then we arrive in the spot for the photoshoot and let the creativity come.
Sometimes we have a clear idea of the image we want to create because we were inspired by some art, politic event or even a dream.
