Story 130: Marine Fried
What is your backstory?
I grew up in 2 pretty towns near Paris, my parents divorced when I was 3, so I used to change house every week, a week with my mother, a week with my dad; I did this until I was 15. When I was 15, I started my applied arts school in Paris, where I studied there for 3 years until I graduated. These years of study were the hardest but also the most beautiful. I discovered a little more of my artistic universe there, and I met Alexis, my first love with whom I shared 3 years of friendship and 5 years of love.
He started photography at the beginning of our relationship and during our first 2 years of relationship I used to be his daily model. Watching him photograph me everyday taught me a lot and inspired me for the rest of my photographic approach. I remember having loved and hated it for that, photographing myself in my privacy, naked, in tears, happy, traveling, angry, it was my daily life between 17 and 23.
2 years ago, when I was 21 years old he gave me his own analog camera for my birthday, persuading me that I was capable of beautiful things, and since that day I haven't let go of my camera.
I can now say that photography is part of me. Before Instagram deleted my account, my account was "with your eyes", a nickname that summed up my way of photographing, capturing the natural, like photographing with my eyes.
What camera gear/editing setup do you use?
I have almost never changed my camera (i.e. a pentax me) but I have always thought that it is not the camera that makes the photographer, a good photographer should be able to photograph with any type of camera, the important thing is the intention given to the photo. I also tried point and shoot which always broke down quickly, but I love the point and shoot for this spontaneity of photographing. Thanks to this konika zup that I miss so much.
I don't edit my photos (except for the light sometimes, that's what I like with film) but I don't retouch the appearance of my models. The natural is for me the essential.
Later I would like to develop my photographs (in my own dark room) but I have been traveling in Italy for 9 months so it was not possible for me to do so.
How do you achieve the look of your photographs and could you take us through the process?
When I photograph I seek to capture the natural, the real person in front of me. Not the one she tries to show, the one she really is.
I mostly photograph women but I have no trouble working with men. I think it's just easier to relate to and feel a woman's emotions.
My models are my friends, sometimes acquaintances (which I take the time to know before shooting) or myself. I love working around the self portrait, it helps me to know myself better, to understand my body, my emotions.
I am only 23 years old and I feel that my photography will still evolve, it evolves day by day, throughout my life. So if I had to take you with me in my photographic process it would be a moment of life, an evening, a hotel room, a walk in the fields, a cigarette, a trip.
Could you tell us the backstory of some of your photographs?
I decided to travel to Italy for 9 months and I'm coming to the end of my trip, it was intense, I was alone and I tamed myself, I learned to be sad alone, to be happy alone, I rubbed shoulders with true loneliness and I found myself. The self-portraits in the evenings are a little harder than the others, the visits of my friends, the hotel rooms, my meetings, my daily life.
I now know that this notion of reality, emotions and travels will be part of my next book.
What advice do you have for aspiring photographers?
I don't really have any advice to give, other than not to copy, to be yourself, to put a piece of yourself in each of your own photographs.
When my 13K instagram was deleted I realized how much the gaze of people and visibility had an impact on me, and I think you have to go beyond that, photograph for yourself, before photographing for others.
