Shots from "Life", a book by Charlie Foster
"I wish to tell nothing, just show the life."
Tell us about yourself.
I am 27 years old, I live in France and I am an art director.
When and how did the film journey begin for you?
I began to shoot film since the death of my grandfather who was himself a photographer who took thousands of photos of life in general. His death was an electric shock for me. When I inherited his camera, I wanted to feel what got him into this and support what he so much liked and used all his life. Thus I totally abandoned the digital photography to dedicate myself to shoot film, which was a revelation for me.
Why do you shoot film?
Because I don’t focus anymore on the settings, but well and truly on the moment thanks to this support. This is why I make it,for the moment, the share. Furthermore with the film negatives, we leave a material track for the future generations.
Tell us about the book
Since that event I started to work on a project, a photography book. I called it "Life". It’s the work which I led for less than year. The purpose is to photograph girls who have a particular universe. The purpose is simple, I photograph them in their environment without modifying nothing and I let them live their lives.
I get moments which I find interesting. Sometimes, I add a personal touch to the frame, but without distorting it. There is a side: "you see what you see", I want people to imagine an event or a history with these characters, themselves. I wish to tell nothing, just show the life and stop doing things too static as we see too often in the fashion.
I use mainly a Leica M3 and Rolleiflex T3,5 for my photos in black and white and Nikon FM2 for the color. I shot mainly with Tmax 100 and ACROS 100 (sometimes of TriX 400 and Delta 3200 if the conditions are difficult) and Portra for color film.
I draw my inspiration from diverse places (TV, deliver photo, exhibitions), the cinema and sociology.
I shoot from instinct and with energy from my grandfather.
You can find Charlie Foster here: