It’s true that naked bodies which we can be confronted with in everyday life through advertisements, films and clips, all meet the same standard of beauty. A white, thin, muscular body, perfectly shaved, without marks or traces of scars or acne. A body that the vast majority of people cannot identify with. Society and mentalities are changing but there is still work to be done in this direction. Showing all the diversity of bodies and their beauty is a project in which Sébastien believes. He would like to bring his stone to the building with his artistic photos: “I know that in my gallery, the bodies are quite homogeneous. There are a few exceptions but it’s still too smooth for my taste. Why is this the case? Because it’s often the same people I photograph. Either people I know, or people who have been convinced by an experience and want to repeat it. It’s actually quite complicated to find new models because I’m not a professional photographer and I don’t have a lot of followers either, so I understand the hesitation of some people, even if my account still gives me some credibility.”
This difficulty in finding models is also linked to the fact that Sébastien only photographs voluntary and non-professional models. “I only photographed one professional model, so I paid for this project. Her poses were the ones we are used to seeing in photos, it was very easy and natural for her to expose herself and for me to photograph her, but afterwards, I thought it was too obvious and that in the end it was not what I wanted to do. I posted the photos and then turned to more authentic non-professional models. The fact that I myself pass in front of my own camera also has this objective of reassuring, of showing that I too am ready for the exercise.“If you want to try the experiment, you can contact the photographer via his Instagram account.
It’s never me who decides what I photograph. The model shows what they want to show.
In this perspective of showing the truth, Sébastien hardly retouches his photos, or in any case not the bodies: “I work with an old camera, a Canon D60, which is no longer up to date and above all, I work without lighting. So sometimes I’m going to touch up the light a little in the foreground or background, so as to bring out the body.“
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