Camille Brasselet

The photographic works of contemporary artist Camille Brasselet feature characters in fragments of stories, in moments suspended in time. Her pastel-coloured world is characterised by rigorous compositions and a taste for atmospheres bathed in light and mystery.

Beginning of the artist’s career as a photographer

Born in Normandy in 1997, Camille Brasselet currently lives and works in Lyon. She showed an early interest in the visual arts. This passion first began with a keen interest in the fine arts. She studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Saint-Brieuc. She experimented with different media, including painting, sculpture and printmaking.

Camille Brasselet also spent a lot of time in the school’s photo lab. There she refined her practice and realised that it was through this technique that she expressed herself best. She then studied photography for three years at the École de Condé in Lyon. She started out as a photographer even before graduating.

Her work soon attracted attention. She has won awards including the FotoFever Prize for her “À côté” series in 2020. In 2021, she was a finalist for the HSBC Prize for Photography. The following year, she was awarded the “Le19M de la Photographie des Métiers d’Arts” prize as part of the Picto Prize for Fashion Photography.

The photographic world of Camille Brasselet, “like a form of muted, strange sweetness“

Camille Brasselet’s photographs are populated by women, often with their backs to the camera or with their faces hidden. The artist admits: “I’m more interested in composition, shapes and attitudes than in expressions”. She works on postures, on the mystery of each of her characters, who are “in the in-between, that state where nothing happens, but at the same time everything happens“. These figures often appear alone, separated from the others. Reflection on solitude is at the heart of Camille Brasselet’s work, as are expectations and our place in the world.

Camille Brasselet works with her family (her sisters, her grandmother), friends and relatives. Under her gaze, the model becomes a photographic character. She also feels the need for a bond, for intimacy. She creates it when she doesn’t know the person she’s talking to. She explains: “When I choose a model I don’t know, I look for the natural, innocent and strange side that can be seen in a face, an expression or a movement.” The body is a theme that runs through all her work.

Pastel colour schemes, the importance of light

Colour is a very important part of Camille Brasselet’s photographic work. Her chromatic preferences are reflected in the choice of costumes for her models, accessories and sets. The colours are natural (pastel blue and white swimming pool lockers, a powder pink wall and a green-tiled bathroom), not the result of post-production retouching.

As well as colour, light is also essential to Camille Brasselet’s photographic universe. She prefers natural light and likes to seize the opportunities offered by a large bay or French window. However, she also works on the lighting. In the “Untitled stories” series, for example, set in rooms with rich wood panelling or in a row, the apparent simplicity of the light is the result of lighting comparable to that used by theatre or film professionals.

A long creative process behind each photograph

Each stage of Camille Brasselet’s creative process is meticulously prepared before the shoot. She explains: “Everything that fits into my frame is thought through“. The contemporary photographer thinks long and hard about her images, which she then organises into series (“La dilution du temps” (The dilution of time), “Untitled stories”, etc.). It all starts with an idea, which she then sets down, usually in a sketch. Writing also helps her, and she takes preliminary notes. As a general rule, each photo shoot is designed and organised for one image, or two at the most.

From projecting an image to the final result, finding the right location is another important stage. It’s often difficult to find the right place (a hotel, a home, a swimming pool). This phase takes several weeks or even months. For example, for the photograph “Untitled Story IV”, the house was chosen in particular because of the intertwining of the rooms: “You almost get the impression that it’s a fake set, and that’s what interested me“.
Camille Brasselet likes to work with windows, openings and mise en abime. Her scenes often play out in the domestic space, the setting of the home, where she tracks down the slight discrepancy that makes objects and places that seem so familiar seem strange.

Multiple sources of inspiration: from painting to photography and cinema

Camille Brasselet’s contemporary photographs are full of references to designers whose worlds resonate with her own. They have inspired her career and her work, in terms of setting, colour and atmosphere. The flat tones of colour and the silhouettes waiting around the zinc counter of a bar or at the window of Edward Hopper’s paintings call out to the contemporary artist. She appreciates suspended pictorial moments, where there is often neither before nor after. In terms of cinema, Camille Brasselet cites Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, with his captivating characters and sense of colour. The mysterious, almost disturbing work of Dutch fashion photographer Olaf is also a source of inspiration.