Photographs

'Titouan Lamazou’s portraits of women, executed with an adroit hand in the four corners of the world, have largely contributed to securing his notoriety as a travelling artist. His photography work, on the same subjects, is only just starting to be appreciated and considered as such. It deserves, in my opinion, our attention: he reveals an exceptional talent as a colorist. It has only been since 2007 that Titouan Lamazou has been presenting his photographic works, a key selection of which appears in this book.

A time of maturation was necessary for him to find his own language in this medium, and to inscribe it in the lineage of his pictorial approach. For in his view, drawing and painting the portrait of someone he meets for the first time opens a door, is the ideal way to make contact with the other person. And photographing the person? Yes, but at a later stage… […] Only when the painted work is finished and trust established does Lamazou go onto the photographic portrait. And a miracle occurs.

Far from adhering to thesis of the “decisive moment” espoused by Cartier-Bresson, who, camera in hand, would seek to capture a unique image on the spot, the fruit of a random situation, Lamazou elaborates his shots like paintings. In this respect, he takes what is closer to a visual-arts approach.'