Le site de Stéfane FranceBio : english

france.stefane@orange.fr

+33 6 07 78 77 45

 

Biography

 

Stéfane France was born in Valenciennes, in the North of France, in 1954. He lives, works, and breathes TV and photography.

                                                                                                                
Upon graduating from the HEC business school in 1978 Stéfane buys his first Leica camera, and immediately embarks on a photo documentary trip focused on the tin mines and miners in Llallagua in Bolivia.

 

He carries on to live a ‘double life’, pursuing his passion for photography at the same time as launching different television- related projects. 

 

Despite the fact that his professional life has now fully embraced the digital revolution, Stéfane stubbornly continues to prefer shooting in black and white analogue photography.
 

 

A true purist, Stéfane prepares his own development chemicals using pure rain water, free from calcium deposits that he collects and filters himself.

 

Wander both physically and mentally. Learn to appreciate light and distance. Be inspired and breathe places, people and pictures.

 

Think of the frame, but not too much. Project oneself. Now or never. Imagine the photo, take it without thinking about it too much, even nearly forgetting it.

 

Prepare the developer, move from the light to the darkness to “reveal” the awaiting image as a negative.

 

Let time pass by. Browse through the contact sheets; learn to be disappointed about not finding the same emotion as when the photo was taken. Find the photo, there, the one that we saw and took without any special thought, unconsciously.

Move from the negative to the positive. Prepare the baths, put on a bit of jazz, increase or hold back parts of the picture by playing with the light, a piece of wire and a bit of cardboard. See the image gradually appear in the developer… Take the time to eliminate the chemicals when washing the clichés. Soak them in rainwater to remove the calcium deposit that reduces the brilliance of the image.

 

Hang the proofs like shirts on a washing line. Return the following morning, take the curled proofs and put them a couple of minutes in a hot press at 100°. There you have it … the photo is there, in true life, on the paper.

 

Stéfane France likes this path that enables him to project, capture the moment, passing time, light and shade. Think of the image and the time.