INTERVIEW w/ ESTELLE HANANIA

French photographer Estelle Hanania is described as a “lyrical storyteller,” with images that create “tender and sometimes perplexing plots.” Existing both as singular frames, and then as integral parts of a narrative, Estelle’s “poetically nimble” photos sway between bewitching ambiguity and startlingly clear intent. When I first saw them, I was in awe of her dexterity as a photographer. Almost-cinematic drama and intrigue is effortlessly juxtaposed with more-traditional photographic forms of landscape and still-life—and the result is something fantastical, jarring, and completely new.

Estelle’s current exhibit, “Roam the Lands", is on display from March 20th through May 10th in Paris. The following interview took place, via email, during January and February 2008.

1. “What am I seeing here?”

This is That: How do your series come about? Are they born as conceptual, story-based ideas, or are they more aesthetic when they first come to you? For example, how did the series "Shady" happen, in terms of its stages of development?

Estelle Hanania: It is not only an aesthetic concern, [but] indeed the visual aspect of my photographs in “Shady,” for example, is very important: the way I frame, compose, and the colours are key in my process.

“Shady” is an ongoing project that started with the image of grass that’s been tainted with colours, giving the sensation that the picture has been “colorised” in an old-school way. Everything in the series is made from this idea that what you see could be something else. I don’t work digitally, so I’m very interested in working with the photographic negative and this specificity. I wanted, in this series, to question the photographic medium, for people to ask themselves, “What am I seeing here?” And I wanted to do it in a very poetic way: working with natural elements, water, fire, air....

TisT: In regards to your exploring the possibilities of manipulating negatives, etc., how much of your creativity is worked out in the darkroom, or after taking the actual image?

EH: Usually when I go to the darkroom, my image is already done and I’m not playing too much with the machine at this level. But I’d love to experiment in the darkroom—that’s something I’d be interested in. I’d love to play more with the medium, and I’m working on it right now...

TisT: You also mentioned working with natural elements in a poetic way. Much of your work seems to have an organic, natural sensibility. Can you talk a little more about how this inspires you, and what it is, in particular, that you are drawn to?

EH: Yes indeed, I think that fire, water, natural elements... are an endless source of inspiration, forms constantly generated in such unexpected ways sometimes. For example, last year I went in some grottoes (caves) in the south of France, and I was totally fascinated by the variety of colours, shapes, textures. I took pictures that are really abstract and organic; when you look at them, you don’t really know if it is macro photo or a wide-angle landscape—and I do love this loss of [distinguishing] marks.

TisT: I'm really intrigued by your "Demoniac Babble" series (pictured below). Can you tell me about specifically what you are attempting with it, and the ideas behind it?



EH: The “Demoniac Babble” series was shot in a different way than how I usually proceed. I traveled to a specific area in witzerland, knowing that a pagan tradition was taking place there, each year. I knew that men get dressed in a specific outfit that they prepare for months... I got in touch with one of them and the whole group of 12 men who call themselves the “Ugly” ones, silvesterchlause. They are dressed in wild, demonic outfits. They roam the landscapes from farm to farm, singing, drinking to celebrate the winter to come, and to frighten the bad spirits...I didn’t know exactly what I was about to shoot or what the conditions would be. It was total improvisation there.

TisT: Getting into some technical specifics, how much of a work like "Clad in Demon," or your other series that use costumes, do you fabricate and create from the ground up? For me, I love the entirety and enormity of your work, how it feels like another world has been created for the image. There's a fairytale-like feeling there, like I've stumbled onto a place that I didn't know existed.

EH: I really like your analysis! For “Clad in Demon,” I was literally inspired by what I saw and experienced in Switzerland, and I badly wanted to appropriate the event myself in a way, so I created my own costume and did these images.

2. Images That I Have in My Mind and I’m Obsessed With



TisT: I am struck by the narrative quality to each of your series, and, more specifically, the ambiguous and nonlinear quality to the narratives. How much does the concept of storytelling matter to you when you take photos?

EH: I don’t say to myself I’m going to tell a specific story , and I don’t know exactly which path I’m going to take or where my images will lead me. I prefer not to give myself strict rules, and to let my imagination and inspiration express themselves.

I shoot images that I have in my mind and I’m obsessed with, and then only afterward, when I discover the results of my shooting, do I have the real meaning of what I did. I then rearrange them into a story or a juxtaposition that strikes me and that I find interesting in a certain way.

TisT: What also strikes me about your work is the combination of images that seemingly don't go together. You juxtapose images that are very different in content, but are cohesive in feel, expression, atmosphere, etc. They end up expanding the content in unsuspecting ways. (I'm thinking specifically of instances when you switch from portraits to more still-life-like, object-oriented, or abstract images.) This strikes me as, again, a narrative quality—like a plot device, or a turning point in the story. Can you talk a little about your thought process and intention with what you choose to photograph, and the placing of it in the final work?

EH: Yes, I think unexpected juxtapositions are more inspiring, and have more meaning, eventually. They catch the eye more than something well-organized and coherent. I like to confront portraits with still-life images, because it propels it to an enigmatic world made of fragments of images. That forces you to wonder “why” and build your own interpretation.


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I'd like to thank Estelle for her generosity, warmth, and participation with this interview.