Jean-Pierre RIEU

Infiltration at Baikonur

Jean Pierre RIEU — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 15:28:05 +0000

A road trip (almost) like no other…

It was going to be a road trip like any other. We had planned to go to Hungary and then Ukraine to visit Pripiat, the abandoned town in the Chernobyl zone. A normal road trip until one of us suggested we make the trip to the abandoned Russian shuttles “?

The dream could become reality, but we had no room for error and the six months of preparation for this trip would not be enough. Once we got there, we wouldn’t have time to deal with the unexpected – everything had to be like clockwork…

We knew that we were going to stay three days without being able to communicate with the outside world. So we had to plan ahead, because knowing where the two hangars were is one thing, but knowing how to get there discreetly is quite another. So we had to know which areas to avoid, because Baikonur covers more than 6,700 square kilometres, with parts that are active and others that are inactive, or at least appear to be.

Information about a place like this is hard to come by, and we had to comb through videos, online photos and even writings from previous expeditions. Because this is an expedition.

Departure for Hungary, followed by a flight to Kiev and a visit to Pripiat… A road trip like any other. Take-off for Kazakhstan, where on arrival the driver is waiting to take us to the hotel. A last beer in town before leaving the next afternoon for Baikonur.

Of course, there were unforeseen circumstances, surprises and even a bit of stress, but that’s part of our story. But that’s part of our story. We were in the MZK hangar, looking at the two shuttles OK-ML-2 and OK-1.02, also known as ‘Ptichka’. Two days later, before daybreak, we set off again and it wasn’t until we reached the rendezvous point that we knew we’d made it. To see the full series, click HERE

Click here to see the report on the SIGMA brand blog

Social distance

Jean Pierre RIEU — Mon, 16 Sep 2024 15:16:27 +0000

The epidemic of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) is spreading and turning into a pandemic, hitting France along the way. On 17 March 2020 at 12 noon, confinement began in France…

Even if it’s temporary, it’s a 180-degree turn in our lives, because the key word in this confinement is “social distancing”. What a lovely expression for saying that we’re going to be isolated from those close to us: our parents and friends and all the people and things that made up our daily lives. Our plans were also going to be turned upside down: no more leisure activities, no more outings or very few, no more trips, exhibitions and shows were cancelled… We were going to be prisoners within our own four walls.
We all have a tendency to procrastinate, so I took advantage of the first few days to catch up and do all the things I’d got into the habit of putting off until tomorrow.

But that only lasted for a while and very quickly the desire to take photos returned. So I decided to resume my self-portraits, adapting them to the confinement: Since it was no longer possible to meet other people, I decided to ask them to send me a photo of themselves that I could use to make a self-portrait.
It was a way for me to meet them again, to share a moment together. In this series are close friends, friends with whom I travel or have travelled and with whom I have shared some really good times, but also people with whom I have had exchanges or simply whose photographic work I appreciate.

No Photoshop retouching to get the cut-out in front of my face. I just cut out the photo I receive after printing it out, keeping the homothetic effect, and place it in front of my face, following the instructions of the person who will be taking the photo. This time it’s my son Matisse who’s doing the job, and he’s doing pretty well. The flash settings were made and my SLR on the tripod was connected to my PC.

So there’s no retouching to make the faces match, it’s all done when the shot is taken.
For each photo I receive, I look for the best way to adapt the morphologies and expressions.

But this time, there’s a bit of staging involved, because doing several self-portraits in a row made me realise that I needed to vary the compositions to break the routine and avoid getting bored!
Once again, a big thank you to everyone who took part in this project.

The complete series is HERE

Portrait

Jean Pierre RIEU — Mon, 16 Sep 2024 15:15:42 +0000

A few years ago, while leafing through a magazine, I came across a full-page photo of a woman advertising cosmetics. I cut the page at an angle and took a photo of myself with the cut-out in front of my face. I have to admit that the result wasn’t exactly top-notch, but I could see straight away that there was plenty to do. I came up with the idea of a series of offbeat portraits and over time my technique evolved.

For his portraits with cut-outs, the photo is taken all at once, during the session. So there’s no Photoshop editing to match the eye or any other part of the face. First I take a photo of the person who will be on the cut-out and I print it out. Then I have to work out how to position the cut-out. (Which part to choose so that the result is interesting).

Then comes the trickiest part: the person posing sits down and has to hold the cut-out in front of their face, following my instructions. The light settings are made and my camera is on a tripod, connected to my computer by USB cable, using a programme to guide the model precisely. The slightest detail is important, a wrong tilt or rotation of the model and the photo has to be redone: the two faces have to become one. It takes some time, depending on the model’s patience, but in principle the result delights both protagonists. So if you too are tempted to do a portrait of a different kind, don’t hesitate to contact me.

I’ve only posted the latest portraits on my new site, as I didn’t want to display the previous portraits I’d taken of various artists and characters on the web. If you want to see my previous work, a small sample can be found HERE.