Ophelie Rondeau is a self-taught photographer & videographer based in Berlin, and she tells us she is not good in talking about herself. Luckily she is extremely good at taking pictures and she is currently being mentored by artist Richard Kern. That is already impressive. She has been shooting girls on film under the project #ophelieandthegirls since February 2015 and we surely wanted to know more about her and the beautiful nymphs in her work.
KB: You shoot lots of girls. How did this begin? Would you ever consider shooting boys?
It all started in London in February 2015 when I needed a career change. I had been gifted with my grand-dad’s film camera, a Canon EOS 700, and started using it by taking self-portraits for the first two months, until I reached a state of frustration. I was frustrated because I couldn’t photograph exactly what I wanted. Shooting with a self-timer and a tripod can be really enervating and so that’s when I decided to get models involved. Why girls? For some reason it felt obvious at the time. I wanted to bring emotions into my photography, and I think girls can bring that out so much more than boys. I can see now that it isn’t necessarily the case but that’s how I felt back then anyway. The female form has been, is and always will be a source of inspiration. There are endless ways to photograph a girl. I’m a year and a half into my project #ophelieandthegirls and still full of inspiration!
I am currently considering shooting boys. This is something I never really had interest in doing until I recently reconnected with my brother after many years. He is now a successful model and runs for the biggest fashion designers in the world. He is such an inspiration to me. Seeing him immediately made me want to photograph boys. He definitely is the reason why I will soon feature the male form in my work! In fact, I’m going to focus on this for a little bit and see what happens.
KB: Where do you get ideas from? What inspires you?
I am obsessed with the way things look around me. I place each and every object in such a way that it is either perfectly aligned or centred or symmetric to what’s around. It goes from my collection of video cassettes, to the shower gels in my bathroom, to the pile of books in my bedroom, to the shoes in the closet, to the spices jars in the kitchen, to the food in the fridge, and so on. I get great satisfaction from this. Yes, I am a freak! Anyway, this obsession has influenced the way I work since day one and is my biggest source of inspiration too. Furthermore, my brain is constantly generating ideas from pretty much everything I see, read, hear, touch, or everybody I meet, or even my own memories.
KB: Do you prefer to plan or shoot spontaneously? How do you achieve the results you want?
I am definitely a spontaneous person! Like Jack Dawson who wakes up in the morning not knowing what the day will be like. So far most of my shoots have been organised at the very last-minute. I love working in emergency. I think this is when I am the most efficient. Back when I was at school, I used to do my homework on the way to college. It’s pretty much the same now! When I go on a shoot, I never really know what I’m gonna be doing. I don’t set goals to myself, or results to achieve. Extremely rarely anyway. I do spend a lot of time location scouting, either in real life or online, and also casting. I could spend hours on instagram going from an account to another in search of my next models. Inspiration will come once my camera is in my hand, the models in front of me and in a decor/location I love. It has worked out pretty well so far but I do plan on changing my approach to the way I work. I’m going to try planning in advance and know exactly what I’m doing but it feels kind of scary! Expectations bring disappointments and disappointments bring negative vibes before becoming an extra motivation. We’ll see what happens!
KB: What is your ultimate dream project? What are you working on now?
I am currently being mentored by artist Richard Kern and he recently advised me to go from film to digital. I don’t feel comfortable with such format but I do consider giving it a try. I see it as a big step in my career so who knows what will come out of this… Right now I am sticking to my Olympus MJU II that I love so much and will start featuring boys in my work as mentioned above. I also want to do more video work, but I would need my VHS camcorder to turn on in order to do that! The camera is being very tricky at the moment and it’s very frustrating. I have a short movie that I want to shoot as soon as possible, based on my own past. I can’t wait to get started. I am also currently working on some group shows and in fact I’m looking for female artists based in Berlin who would like to get involved!
