Maxime Bertiaux
DOP, Director, Photographer
“As a person and artist I’d like to say that I am someone who seeks the emotions, the truths, the essence of people through images.”
What about photography and directing as a medium speaks to you? How did you get your start in it?
“Younger I was someone who lived in his own bubble, more introvert. I think I built my standards, my way of life through my references; I watched a lot of old movies, I collected old photographs, and that's how I started my relationship with picture. When I was 14, I wanted to reverse the relationship with the past, with the image. I bought a Super 8 camera, and I started filming the present, with an offbeat point of view — a point of view of both the past and the future. That's how I turned to cinema and photography because they allow me to show a reflection of the world in parallel, a reflection of the world deformed like an old mirror, in which the codes are twisted. When we don't know how to situate the time and the place, we don't know how to situate people's minds.”
Are there any recurring themes/issues you like to address within your work?
“Regarding my usual themes, I think the main thing I want to bring out is the mash-up of time periods, both in my three short films and in my Madonna project. There is always a question of contrast between what people are deep down inside and the context in which they evolve. In my 3 films there is always a parallel editing. Often, the interiority of people is represented on 16mm film, or in black and white and the reality, the context is filmed in a more real, more tangible way. In a different way, my “Madonna” photo project also shows a contract between an image from the unreal past, like an oil painting, and the real side of the people that I have photographed. I try, with the queer models, to show a true part of themselves that stands out, without necessarily there being any clue of who they are. I try to make contract between the present and the past to bring out a truth from themselves. For this project I collaborated with several queer artists ; Morphae, Remi Vergnanini, Cantacavalli.”
"Madone project" 2021
Are there upcoming events that you would like to bring attention to?
“The nest steep for me: soon in March/April 2023, I will release my next two short films "The last nerve" and "Up above my head.”
