Philippe Jarrigeon photographer

http://www.crane.tv/philippe-jarrigeobirthday cake, I had the impression of doing a performance,” says Jarrigeon.
Early-years Jarrigeon honed his unique aesthetic at the prestigious École Cantonale d’Arts de Lausanne in Switzerland, which he entered as a trainee industrial designer but left as a photographer obsessed with the object. After graduating he moved to Paris, where he started working as a graphic designer but collaborated on small photoshoots when he could. Part image-maker, part sculptor, Jarrigeon manipulates reality rather than recording it, whether he is constructing an elaborate set or creating a vibrant composition. He examines each object and its shape, colour and texture, comparing it to the pieces he is using and deciding how they fit together.
When shooting a portrait, he uses the sitter as if they were a character in a play rather than trying to achieve an authentic representation; in Grand Magasin, a redhead donning Yazbukey’s fun jewellery plays the commanding manager, while three women dressed in Véronique Leroy’s colourful suits are cheerful employees.
Jarrigeon’s playful yet meticulously composed images soon attracted attention, and his work was exhibited at the prestigious International Festival of Fashion and Photography in Hyères when he was just 26. His work was on show at the Fotomuseum Winterthur the following year, and by the time he was 30 had worked with Chanel, Dries Van Noten, Kenzo, Hermès, Dyptique and Roger Vivier, and had been featured in Wallpaper* magazine, Numéro, Le Monde M Magazine, Double and Vogue, among others.
“His photography shows a great sense of colour and décor,” says Elsa Janssen, the director of La Galerie des Galeries. “He creates installations that bristle with objects, people, animals, materials and flashy colours. Whether in his portraits, still life or fashion shoots, precise framing underscores the humour or irony of his perspective.”
“Photography is about paying attention to and deliberately looking at everything,” he says. “It is not just the act of capturing a moment, it’s about choices. I never fully adhered to the concept of the Decisive Moment – Henri Cartier-Bresson shot extensively, his genius was in knowing which of his frames to single out from the rest when looking through his contact sheets. It’s that selection process, that act of authorship, that matters.”
For him, he adds, putting together a shoot is like preparing a meal. “You’re bringing together different elements around the table – an actor, a model, a certain type of lighting, objects or a specific colour,” he says. “You cook with these, hoping to create an enjoyable experience.”
Like any inventive chef, he’s open to a touch of serendipity; he also has a taste for fusion, mixing cutting-edge design with the everyday. He often casts his models in the street, for example, and for Grand Magasin used department store employees. “The idea is to transgress the conventions of the stereotypical fashion body as defined by the size of the clothes that designers lend us,” he says. “It’s a way to make an idealised world a tad more real and underline its inherent triviality.”
This approach also has something satirical about it, something he emphasises by transforming his living models into inanimate mannequins. It brings to mind Roland Barthes’ Camera Lucida, and in particular his observation that “however lifelike we strive to make it (and this frenzy to be lifelike can only be our mythic denial of an apprehension of death), photography is a kind of primitive theatre, a kind of tableau vivant, a figuration of the motionless and made-up face beneath which we see the dead”.
Jarrigeon is celebrating fashion and its pop aesthetic, but he’s also offering a darker critique of consumerism. “After all, the experience of going to a grand magasin is all about being attracted by something shiny and rejected by something uncomfortable,” he says. “Plus, you always head for the escalators moving in the opposite direction to where you intend to go.”n