Fabien Dettori

Fabien is a Paris-based artist who uses photography for his nude portraits and still lifes. But not only photography is used to create his images.. We talked about his philosophy, his artistic approach and what matters to him in his work.
*(Image: Self portrait.)*

Thomas Berlin: Fabien, it's nice that we can do this interview. Could you please introduce yourself in a few words?

Fabien Dettori: Hello Thomas, first of all I would like to thank you for your interest. I am Fabien Dettori, I live and work in Paris and I’ve been an artist all my life..

Thomas Berlin: Your photography reminds me on old paintings. These images focus mostly on the female body.You work with low light, dark background and have a minimalistic approach. Did I describe it correctly or would you like to correct or add something? Did you develop this style over the years or how did you get into it?

Fabien Dettori: My mother is a painter and my father is a photography enthusiast. So I guess I am a mix between those two mediums. I started as a press photographer and then went into fashion photography but my culture is more about interpretation of the reality than showing reality. I am trying to catch the invisible, the emotion. I try to go as close as possible to the truth. When you are naked there is no more signs of social class. The clothes also date the images, they bear witness to an era. You can hide behind an outfit and play a role. That’s why I try to focus on emotions, they are timeless and much more powerful. I am looking for the real intimacy. It’s like documenting life. It’s becoming something universal.

Thomas Berlin: In addition to the visible perception of beauty and sensuality, do you have a general message that you would like to convey with your work?

Fabien Dettori: Picasso used to say « I don’t paint what I see I paint what I think » His words could apply to my way of working.

Thomas Berlin: The pictures show younger women as protagonists. Could you tell me more about your protagonists and how they get into their roles?

Fabien Dettori: I am not looking for models but I am looking for personality. It’s more an experience than a classic shooting. I want them to be themselves, to dig into their emotions. I am looking for authenticity. They are used to be asked to follow the vision of the photographer, the fantasy, but not to express who they really are. What I am really looking for is the inner poetry of emotions.

Thomas Berlin: What should your stories trigger in the viewer?

Fabien Dettori: I never think about that when I am working. I just try to express my vision, my sensibility without thinking about how it will be seen. Basically if I am satisfied about an artwork I say to myself that someone else will like it too. Photography is like literature, you have a story in front of your eyes. Painting is more like music, it takes more effort. You have to take your time in front of a Soulages or a Rothko painting. Some of my images are deliberately very dark. They require a special effort to reveal themselves. In this way, I give them a personality. They don't give themselves away easily. For me, these are the most interesting images, because they create an interaction with the viewer, and have to be earned.

Thomas Berlin: How do you create the idea of a theme or a story? Is your approach more intuitive or based on a concept?

Fabien Dettori: Every model is different, we are all singular. There is no rule. So I never prepare a session. I never make a « story », this is a word for editorial job. I don’t do that. I don’t work for press. I do accept once a year a fashion story for a magazine but I do that for fun. In my work each picture must work by itself. Like a painting.

Thomas Berlin: How do you prepare for a shoot?

Fabien Dettori: I try to talk first with the person I am going to work with. I try to detect who she is, her sensibility, her failures, what we inspire to each other. Then we look together at some art books, Degas, Rodin, Klimt and we discuss about our feelings, our emotions. This process gives us a first direction and then we start shooting. The subject always drives me, I never know what I am going to do. It is instinctive. I put a lot of pressure on myself before putting my eye behind the camera. I always want to give the very best of myself. The creative process is always painful. It’s full of doubts. I don’t take any pleasure to make some photos. I am very focus and emotionally very sensitive to try to catch those little emotional sparks. My technic is very singular, I make my own lens formula, I work with old and rusty analog cameras. I always have to keep in mind this quiet heavy side. It is all manual. I take the light with a lightmeter, set the aperture and speed, check the film holder, cock the shutter, do the manual focus…It would be much more easier to work with a digital camera, ready to shoot but the result won’t be the same…I feel like a craftsman.

Thomas Berlin: And what about the interaction with the model?

Fabien Dettori: I always work alone. It is all about intimacy and trust. We decide with the model the direction we want to take and I let them live the moment in a total freedom. Sometimes with music. It’s like a dance. Thomas Berlin: How do you find the people who come in front of your camera and what are their motives for participating in your pictures?

Fabien Dettori: Social media is my main way to find models. They contact me or I contact them and after some few messages they come to my atelier. The most difficult part is to find an availability in our respective schedule. I think they first contact me because they like my work and then after few messages they are interested to experience a new way of working based on their personality rather than on just beauty. It is a real artistic collaboration.

Thomas Berlin: When are you happy with your work? And what is a good picture in general?

Fabien Dettori: I am happy when the picture is profoundly sincere and emotional. When it tells a story. There is also a lot of reference, symbolism in my pictures. But you have to look at them closely.

Thomas Berlin: Do you photograph only humans or also other motifs?

Fabien Dettori: I really love to shoot still life. I am inspired by the Japanese philosophy of the Wabi Sabi which consist to find poetry into melancholia or objects worn by time. It echoes our own condition. A faded flower has much more poetry than a fresh one. There is a multitude of shades, a richness of colors that symbolize the passing of time and the preciousness of it. Still life also require to look at things in a fully open and extra sensitive way. I am working on a long term project about still life. I think it would be called « My Things » it is about all those objects that we keep without knowing why. But they are here for such a long time that they end up to be a part of your life, to represent some memories…They are like a piece of our past. We end up personifying these objects.

Thomas Berlin: Let’s get to the technical side of your art, especially your analog photography. Which cameras and lenses are you using mostly?

Fabien Dettori: The camera I use the most is an old Mamiya Universal with a 127mm lens (with a home made lens formula.) and a Polaroid film holder. I also use a 4x5 Horseman and several Mamiya RZ67. That’s the ones I use the most. But I have more than 30 medium and large format analog cameras. They are just tools I use like a mechanician and his toolbox.

Thomas Berlin: You already mentioned that the results of easy digital images are not the same like your analog photography. Do you mean more the craftsman-like photographic process or also the different rendeing of the images?

Fabien Dettori: With analog cameras you have to take your time due to all the manual settings, it’s an other way of working. There is also much more interaction with the model. You have to be more focus on the instant. With the digital there is this « let’s shoot and check later » and I feel that the camera screen is like a barrier between the model and me. It’s less organic. But I am mixing both, they’re just tools.

Thomas Berlin: How do you deal with light? And what is your most important light setup?

Fabien Dettori: I like to mix day light and fluorescent lighting. When I started into studio photography in my 20’s I was first an assistant at the iconic Pin Up Studios in Paris where I had the opportunity to assist some of the greatest fashion photographers. There is a quote that I like « learn your classics and create your own rules » So I am always creating some new set up’s. I have been into photography for more than 30 years now so I can say that I am experienced with light. She is a good friend of mine, she is like a brush, I paint with light.

Thomas Berlin: What does your workflow look like after the shoot?

Fabien Dettori: I try to edit as soon as possible to keep the emotion of the shooting alive. But there is some Polaroid who can wait for years before I work on them. No rules once again.

Thomas Berlin: Fabien, could you describe the editing process in more detail?

Fabien Dettori: Editing is to choose THE image. When I take photos, I release the shutter several times. Editing is where I choose which of the different images is the strongest. The others will be destroyed. For the Polaroid it’s something else. The manipulation, as you call it, is an integral part of my creative process. It's at this stage that I can integrate my interpretation, texture and oxidation of gold in reference to my oxidized memory. It's at this point that I leave photography and move on to painting. That’s why some pieces need more time. Francis Bacon used to say that he never knew which direction to take when he started a painting, but that it was the subject that drove him. In fact it has a lot to do with instinct

Thomas Berlin: Fabien, now I would like to come to a specific part of your work which I would call „Polaroid Manipulation“. Is that a correct term? And what does it mean in your photography?

Fabien Dettori: What I like with Polaroids it’s that they are Unique like a painting. They are a unique moment of life. A unique witness of an emotion. That makes them precious. But it’s not enough. So I use a technic called emulsion lift that I apply on 24k gold to make them even more precious. I can also oxidize the gold and paint on the support. The support is the wooden cardboard where I paint and apply the gold leaves before putting the emulsion . All those steps must have a signification. I don’t like to do things just to make them pretty. It would be meaningless. The oxidation for example is to symbolise my oxidized memory. The gold is for the preciousness of time. I can also include the Japanese art of Kintsugi in my artwork. Photography is just a tool, one step in my creative process. There is no clear boundaries between photography and painting . Both are just tools for me to express my vision, my emotions. I don’t see myself as a classic photographer or a painter. I am just me doing what I like with my own rules.

Thomas Berlin: Oh, Kintsugi? Does that mean that you tear apart images and put them back together again? Or how can I imagine that?

Fabien Dettori: For years I tore up unselected images. There's a violent gesture in tearing photos, especially Polaroids, which are one-of-a-kind pieces. I couldn't bring myself to throw them away, so I kept them in an envelope. Then one day I discovered Kintsugi, and it clicked. From these worthless, damaged pieces of life, I put them back together. It's like giving a preciousness to an object that no longer had any. It's about magnifying flaws instead of hiding them. This obviously echoes our own condition.

Thomas Berlin: What makes that part of your work fascinating from your point of view?

Fabien Dettori: I don’t see myself saying that my work is fascinating…The only thing I am proud of is that I have found my own style and created a technic that no one has done before.

Thomas Berlin: Are you a full-time artist and how did you get into art in general and photography in particular?

Fabien Dettori: Yes I am a full time artist. I tried to quit a few times. I was a music and concert producer for a while but I guess you can’t escape your destiny. I am lucky enough to sell well my artworks. I have a large amount of art collectors who like and believe in my work. So yes, it’s a 24/7 job. I am so thankful to have this luxury to do what I love and to be free. But every morning is a new start. Never take anything for granted

Thomas Berlin: Do you only do personal work due to sell artworks or do you also do commissioned photography?

Fabien Dettori: I can accept commissioned work sometimes. From selected brand or art collector. And once a year a fashion editorial story for a magazine. Just to find back the pleasure to work with a team. But 90% of my work is a personal work.

Thomas Berlin: How do you sell your artworks? And what part of your work is most successful?

Fabien Dettori: When the Covid crisis appears all my exhibition projects in US, Italy, Germany has been postponed and cancelled. So I had time to promote my work on social networks and surprisingly some art collectors start to buy my work online more and more. And till today the sales are still growing up. They first buy limited prints and when I have the opportunity to show them the piece unique in gold firsthand they start to collect them. It’s my « signature » work, closer to painting and most of all unique. They have to be seen first-hand, they play with light and are difficult to reproduce for screens. Collectors acquire something more personal and precious. A piece of intimacy. And they are more affordable than prints.

Thomas Berlin: Did I really understand it correctly that these unique artworks are more affordable than prints?

Fabien Dettori: Yes but it is due to their small format. And I am ok with that. I am more happy to sell those little pieces of life, more intimate, closer to what I am than a large print in multiple edition. It’s really a singular work and they are much more than just an image. They all have their own personality. They are very unique. I also like the fact that everybody can have access to this work.

Thomas Berlin: What do you want to achieve in the next few years?

Fabien Dettori: I never know what I’m going to do tomorrow. I live day by day. My lifestyle suits me perfectly. I am used to it. I have found my balance in this chaotic organisation…Artist life is full of up’s and down’s nothing is really predictable. There is no recipe…no real plan.

Thomas Berlin: After so many professional insights, what do you do in your private life when you’re not producing art?

Fabien Dettori: To be an artist is a full time life. Professional and private life does not exist. There is no clear time table. But I like going to museums, taking care of my two daughters. I have the chance to share my life with a woman who is an artist too so she understand this way of life and we share the same interest for art.

Thomas Berlin: Just one last question, Fabien. When is your next exhibition?

Fabien Dettori: Soon. From 2nd until 9th November 2023 in Galerie Chapon, 17 rue Chapon, Paris.

Thomas Berlin: See you there, Fabien. Thanks for the interview!

Social media: Fabien is on Instagram.