FRAGIL #15 from elr°y on Vimeo.

Damien Elroy Vignaux' endeavors in photography started a long time ago, in the south of France, where he spent his days capturing alluring French landscapes while developing the photos at night on vintage LUMIERE baryté paper in his own home made lab in his basement. He's excited when telling me all this, saying it was "an awesome period of experimentation," before he gets more serious telling me that money eventually took over and he needed to focus on other work. A situation I'm sure most other photographers can identify with.

A couple of years back Damien decided to try his luck in Berlin, and things suddenly started to get more excited again: "- I finally got the opportunity to network with agencies and designers so I started everything again. Photography relaxes me, and since I dont really do it for the money or as a proper career I dont have to stress out about opportunities and I can focus on the concepts I really like. At the same time I think this freedom gives me an interesting approach and I recently got some cool magazines requests."

His first print publication can be seen in the most recent BLONDE mag, and there's more coming up. First up is his debut on Ben Trovato. Les autres en soi features the natural beauty Caroline Bruchmann from Most Wanted Models Berlin, styled by vintage fashion collected by herself, accessorized with designs by the brilliant Tata Christiane.

Damien describes the story and the process: "- Well, it is really about Caroline, she's really an inspiring model to work with and has this easy-going "candeur" that reminds me a bit of Anna Karina's characters in Godard's movies, so I started thinking about something really natural and soft, with kind of a vintage twist, a mellow mood. I even asked her not to use make up, except maybe underlining the eyes a bit. While sharing concepts, we discovered we have similar tastes and she came up with those nice vintage clothes she got from her boyfriend's mother I believe. I called this story "Les autres en soi" (literally "the others in you"), because it is how Godard was defining loneliness: when you are lonely you are never isolated, it remains a dialogue because you always carry "the others" with you."

Here's Les autres en soi by Damien Elroy Vignaux, for Ben Trovato:

Credits
Photography – Damien Elroy Vignaux
Styling – Vintage picks by Caroline herself, necklace accessory designed by Tata Christiane
Model – Caroline Bruchmann @ Most Wanted Models - Berlin

Fearless Future from LF Stores on Vimeo.