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Alexandre Deschaumes
A self-taught musician and photographer since early 2000, Alexandre is inspired by ethereal atmospheres.
"It's not just the visible reality that inspires me. It is by giving it an interpretation, particularly personal and emotional, that we will begin to be able to magnify this scene. And this includes the invocation of unspeakable energies ... Among all things, it is the atmosphere that guides me ... Always."
Michéla Griffith
In 2012 I paused by my local river and everything changed. I’ve moved away from what many expect photographs to be: my images deconstruct the literal and reimagine the subjective, reflecting the curiosity that water has inspired in my practice. Water has been my conduit: it has sharpened my vision, given me permission to experiment and continues to introduce me to new ways of seeing.
Alexandre describes his photographic beginnings as coming from within as much as without, a means of expression which complements his passion for music and shares its improvisation.
Six years after beginning photo workshops on a dreamlike and evocative vision of nature in the French Alps in 2008, his work expanded worldwide to include Patagonia, Iceland and the Italian Dolomites, as well as conferences and exhibitions. Landmarks along the way have included the 2012 movie “The Quest for Inspiration” by Mathieu Le Lay & Alexandre Deschaumes and his 2016 self-published book “Voyage Éthéré”. Over the last year, Alexandre has been developing new website collections and we’ve been fortunate to have a preview of these at the time of our interview.
Would you like to start by telling readers a little about yourself – where you grew up, your early interests and education, and what that led you to do?
Yes, I grew up in France close to the Swiss border: Lake Geneva, Annecy, Chamonix, Mont Blanc...
I never really managed to feel comfortable at school and I was always struggling to understand where my place was. Also, I wasn’t aware of the surrounding great landscape and mountains around me until my 20s. I spent lots of time in my inner worlds with books and computers, and I became a musician (guitar composition and improvisation, drums, atmospheres) around 1997.
When did you first become interested in photography and what kind of images did you want to make?
I started in the garden and forests around my home in the year 2002; I was fascinated by the autumn mists, with the sun piercing through the forest. I had no specific ambitions and projects except sharing this kind of romantic feeling in nature, looking for something emotional and atmospheric.