A photographer since his late teen years, Jean-François Lepage produces work that never deviates from novel, and different, very different. With a keen interest in surreal aesthetics and a seasoned career in fashion/art photography, Lepage puts forth a product that uses multiple creative outlets: photography, digital design, drawing/illustration to create these avant-garde fashion spreads. His work expands the creative process in that it abolishes the ‘flaneur’ phenomenon, instead, Lepage draws the image in such a way that it creates a parallel dimension, further, a place in which people can experience life as the subjects of these photographs; the viewer is more than just a spectator.
I have shot a lot of images where the characters are far away, lost in their world. I play with reality to create a distance, often using plenty of make-up – I want the characters to remain somewhat enigmatic. My scenes are very posed, I put a lot of effort in the position of the head, the angle. Everything is done very slowly, very carefully, to create the impression that it’s both static and breathing, that the model is indeed posing, but that you can forget that.
