1 www.kaltblut-magazine.com COLLECTION 5
Marwane Pallas isn t a new name to many of you, since he has been featured on our website before. This French photographer/artist was raised in the countryside by multicultural parents, Tim Burton and the BBC. Sounds already promising. Initially, he started copying paintings, classic statues, renaissance masterpieces and soon went on to paint and later also shoot. And this is when real magic happened. Often finding inspiration in history, nature, and bright colors he explores the human condition and creates images that are not just poetic and candid, but intriguing, powerful, challenging and enchanting. We needed to find out more about him. 276
277 MARWANE PALLAS HUMANS! Interview by Emma E. K. Jones and Amanda M. Jansson
278 KALTBLUT: How did you start taking pictures of yourself? How easy is it? Marwane Pallas: I m a relatively introverted person so I naturally do most things I do on my own, and my photos are very subjective. There are perks (a shooting can fail without it being too much of an issue, I can go out and shoot whenever I want...) but also lots of disadvantages. Sometimes I want to be more of a director than a model, keeping a balance between those two can be challenging. It s also very hard to renew your recipes with the same ingredient. I try to reinvent myself once in a while. KALTBLUT: Your photos often look like paintings, how did you come up with this idea? Marwane Pallas: I used to draw and paint when I was a child. I ve learned everything I know copying paintings (mostly from the Renaissance) and ancient statues. I switched to photography but I kept the same inspirations so there is a certain continuation. Also, painting has no borders, no limitations and I was born in the age of Photoshop so it speaks to me more. KALTBLUT: Are there some artists that have influenced your work and vision? Marwane Pallas: Not so many artists actually. I only visited one photography exhibition, and the permanent exhibitions of paintings in the main French museums. I don t own any art books. Even if I don t have a very wide awareness of the artistic world surrounding me, there are still some artists whose art I understand, even though I haven t seen much from them, I get the concept, the big picture of their work with the little that I have seen. For my series Here Comes The Sun, I took inspiration from the twisted poetry of Magritte, and from Hopper and his use of flat tint of colours, geometry and perspective. Also, I used to have little esteem for Norman Rockwell, but learned to change
my view on his work. I like his humour, and his testimonial on growing up somewhere and family life. Peter Martensen is another less known painter I admire. I can draw a parallel between his Kafkaian characters and my self-portraits. Also, I re-discovered recently the work of filmmaker Wes Anderson and really liked his softly bizarre and candid world. In the photography field, I admire Alex Prager. She has a very cinematic body of work, and also Martin Parr s sometimes funny and always socially aware photos are very interesting to look at. Both of them make colorful photos, and colours are very important in my own work. For my current project, I m trying to take inspirations from 19th century artistic movements in painting and poetry. 279 KALTBLUT: How do you think the human form blends in with nature? Marwane Pallas: I was afraid nature and humans had grown too much apart, but it s surprising how a human body can blend with nature. For my series, humans I tried to be very convincing in portraying nature as an habitat. I rapidly acquired reflexes I didn t have before and I finally became more comfortable walking barefoot than with boots on. KALTBLUT: So, nature appears a lot in your work. How important is nature to you in your everyday life though? Opening Page: The Bath, This Page Left: Reading The Saints This Page Right Top: The Scarecrow, This Page Right Bottom: Passion Marwane Pallas: I had to move out and live near a big city for my studies, but I feel like an exile. I do belong to the countryside. I have to force myself though, there are a lot of interesting subjects in a more urban environment but it also means giving up part of your creative control. Nature can a be blank page while a street is a colouring page. KALTBLUT: Of all places you use in your work, do you have some favorites? Marwane Pallas: Definitely a field in Germany. Totally flat, no trees, nothing in the horizon, an homogeneous grey sky, the perfect blank page to imagine everything you want and play with the only subject that matters: my characters. KALTBLUT: Many of your pictures look like a fairytale, if you had to reenact an existing story with self portraits, which one would it be? Marwane Pallas: Well, for my series Humans many people drew the comparison with Lord of the Flies. I don t think my pictures look like fairytales. Maybe my earliest pictures but I moved on since then. I m fond of History.
280 WW1 is very interesting and heartbreaking for its use of soldiers (who were sometimes only 16 year old) as Canon Fodder. I once thought about making a short story on this subject. Paths of Glory is a very interesting and moving movie on this subject. KALTBLUT: There is a lot of post production in your work, how many hours do you need for a picture? And what do you do? Marwane Pallas: It s a question I m asked very often but I can t give an exact answer. It really depends on the picture, whether I m mixing drawing with it etc.. It s surely a minimum of 2/3hours of editing. And some of my first mixed art pictures took dozens of hours. KALTBLUT: Your photography is very dreamlike, what was the strangest dream you ve ever had? Marwane Pallas: I was told this very often when I started photography, I thought it was weird because people meant your photos are candid, poetic and sweet like a dream. I don t know about you, but my dreams have nothing sweet, candid or poetic. They are pretty much fucked up actually. I think my most recent work really fits more the adjective dreamlike. I try to be bizarre in a noncandid way; in a really troubling and disturbing way. The most recurrent dream
281 This Page: The Clash I have, which troubles me most, is a stressful nightmare: I usually end up with a dead body I have to hide before getting caught. I didn t murder anyone but I m always at the wrong place at the wrong moment. Just the other night it was three heads I was trying to bury in a forest in the night. But people kept coming and I couldn t dig well enough. It was extremely intense, but I suddenly woke up with an idea burn them!, then I fell asleep again and I slept like a baby. KALTBLUT: Do you have an upcoming project with self portraits? What s the theme of it? Marwane Pallas: It s the series I just talked about. I named it Brothers. I want to deal with group behaviours and violence, while paying tribute to 19th century poems. I m inspired by the years I spent in a boarding school and what I m experiencing right now in a french elite school where groups, clubs and hundred year old traditions of bullying make you. The 19th Victorian setting is aimed at strengthening the idea of groups, as clubs and schools were extremely strong and being an outcast meant being socially dead. KALTBLUT: Which historical era would you like to live in and why? Marwane Pallas: The 60 s never seemed to become out-dated.
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283 This Page Left: If a Tree Falls, This Page Right: Le Déjeuner sur l herbe The music, the colours, the cars KALTBLUT: What are the differences between paintings and photographs for you? Marwane Pallas: I m only familiar with representative paintings. I compose my photos like I used to compose my pictures. Painting will be always superior in terms of freedom and abstraction. But the human figure in photography is always more appealing and more impacting. KALTBLUT: What are the advantages of being self taught? Marwane Pallas: You can brag about it? I m not a self-taught photographer as photography isn t my main activity. I m a postgraduate student with a hobby. Full-time self-taught photographers might be more talkative on this subject than me as I have no expectations from photography. Right now, I really envy people in art schools (not necessarily photography) as they are surrounded by artistic minded people and have access to equipment and knowledge (I d love to try films and develop them on my own). I don t think schools deprive you of your freedom, they give you key advice and opportunity you can t find on your own. KALTBLUT: You mention a multicultural background, how has it affected you? Marwane Pallas: My mother was born and raised in Morocco and my father is French but fond of Arabian and African cultures. My first name is Arabian for instance. I was not really aware of my differences until late. I always assumed I was totally French but when I compare myself to my classmates I do realise they are lacking something I have. It s a theme I explored in my first series Humans. KALTBLUT: You rarely take pictures in interior places, why is that? Marwane Pallas: I did shoot a series in a fake studio (Sur/face), for two of my series, exterior locations were mandatory (Humans, Here comes the Sun). I d love to find interior locations for my current series but I can t find any place alas. I m considering it. www.marwanepallas.com
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