I am a photographer based in Lausanne (Switzerland). My job is divided between my artistic projects, some assignments and some teaching at ECAL, the University of Art and Design in Lausanne.

I got into photography at the end of my academic studies at the University of Lausanne, where I was studying philosophy, literacy and film history and aesthetics. For some reason, not that easy to explain, I decided to buy a good camera and saved money awhile for this purpose. From the day I had the camera, I have been doing pictures every day. It fell on me and never left me.

I studied at the School of Photography in Vevey but did not follow the technical teaching. I was already a bit old and only followed the called ‘formation supérieure’, which is more oriented on the development of a photographic personal language. I learned a lot there but more about how to think a project, edit it and conceptualize it rather than the technical stuff. I was very naïve about photography and the photographic milieu at the beginning of school, and became a bit less at the end.

I was fascinated by this idea that people had found a new way to escape the human condition. I’m also a very anxious person and, even if I am not a transhumanist or religious, I have a lot of empathy for people’s weaknesses. Then, there is the intellectual vertigo; this movement is something really very interesting, complex, worrisome and fascinating.

Technology is not this neutral lovely creature we usually tend to believe it is. It is always related to some ideology, to power, money, people’s aspirations. I hear scientists say they are working for the common good; I know they’re not necessarily lying but I believe they are often wrong.

Because transhumanism raises a lot of problems. First, it may strengthen class struggle, giving access to the very rich people a quality of life no one else will be able to reach. Transhumanism is also related to consumption: it doesn’t at all question the possible need of decreasing the use of resources, the fight against climate change, etc. We can see it as a flight forward.

This is exactly the idea. We see Switzerland as a boring and clean place without asperities, without pain or exclusion. And that’s because here, what people don’t want to see is hidden. For most people, drug addicts are shameful. I just wanted to show how complex, ambiguous and sometimes beautiful the drug scene can be.

I wanted the spectator to feel odd, not to know if he was looking at heaven or hell. I needed to show that beauty lies in the margins, not only sadness or misery. I personally believe that the stereotypes must be manhandled, and that art has this ability.

I’m not an activist. And I don’t believe anymore that art can change mentalities. It can open the eyes to people who are already prepared, conditioned to open their eyes. The matter is that the art milieu in itself is too closed. And the art business kills all the subversion power. That’s la Société du Spectacle! 

The H+ exhibition is ‘en route’ to China, where it will be shown during the Jimei X Arles Festival. It will then travel back to Switzerland and will be shown at Galerie C. Then, a lot of things are in discussion right now. Too early to give more details!