Daughter of a sculptor mother, and a painter father, her approach to art is at a young age. Museums frequentation since her childhood have influenced the entire production of this artist, images of this series..
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..I just follow my dreams and react to my surroundings. I feel my technique and knowledge has evolved over time, but my style remains true to who I am. - S. Hermand-Grisel
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Sandrine Hermand-Grisel is a french visual artist grew up between Paris and in London, but who has been working as photographer freelance in the United States for the past ten years.
Her work has been featured in numerous magazine and exhibitions between Europe and United States, and many are the awards she abtained during the years, such as the Prix Kodak de la Critique Photographique in 2005.
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Daughter of a sculptor mother, and a painter father, her approach to art is at a young age. Museums frequentation since her childhood have influenced the entire production of this artist, images of this series, for example, with its exclusively naturalistic scenario, recall a classic painting characterized by tenuous colors and sinuous compositions.
Even the role assigned to the photographic medium has to do with the art of the past, that romantic for accuracy. Photography is a medium through which Sandrine Hemand-Grisel projects his emotional state, thus becoming a recorder capable of to preserve memories and perceptions derived from experiences, as that she has lived on the west coast of Florida, in a quaint barrier island nestled in the Gulf of Mexico where the photographer originated "Sea Sketches" series.
L.A.: Sandrine can you tell us a little bit about yourself? What led to you working in photography?
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Sandrine Hermand Grisel: As long as I can remember, I always wanted to become a photographer. When I was 2-years-old, my father bought me a toy camera and I spent a lot of time playing with it. Then when I was seven, he gave me his old camera. I immediately loved to take pictures of my family as well as helping my mother by creating a portfolio of her sculptures. It just felt natural to me. I was never tempted to try any other art form. I have a physical connection with my camera and I love to carry it everywhere with me. After my high school diploma, I went to law school to be able to get into the "Paris Institute of Political Studies" (a very selective university in France) to become a photojournalist, but during my studies I lost my mother. I realized how precious and short life could be. I had to live life instead of undergoing it. So I stopped studying law to concentrate only on photography.
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L.A.: Who were some of the first photographers that inspired you?
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Sandrine Hermand Grisel: There are so many photographers that inspired me! As a teenager, I had covered the entire walls of my small bedroom with black and white postcards and posters of some of the masters of photography. I had a lot of postcards by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Doisneau, Marc Riboud, George Rodger, Elliott Erwitt, and Raymond Depardon, but also a huge poster of South African children in a rainstorm by Chris Steele-Perkins. As my knowledge of photography grew, many more images where pinned onto my walls. Books of the exhibitions I discovered also piled up on my shelves. Every photographer I liked, and there are a lot, inspired me. The influence of the work of others is obvious in my own.
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L.A.: What kind of relationship between painting and photography in your work?
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Sandrine Hermand Grisel: As I wrote in my statement for Sea Sketches: "Since I was a little girl my parents insisted that my brother and I accompany them almost every weekend to see an exhibition, a museum or an historic house. What was excruciating at first slowly became a real pleasure. Thanks to them, I had the privilege to see incredible exhibitions both in Paris and London where I grew up. Depending on my age and moods at the time, I favored a century, a movement, a painter..." As visiting exhibitions was a family tradition, I came to appreciate and love paintings. Creativity sparks from many different factors; museums are a big part of my self-construction as an artist. I do not have one specific memory about these visits, but a common feeling of well-being. I guess it was natural for me to link both art forms in my work. I nurture the idea that both are closely linked and can influence each other as well as grow from it.
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L.A.: What characterized the evolution of your photography? Have you always moved in the same direction stylistically or have you noticed substantial variations over the years?
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Sandrine Hermand Grisel: Photography provides me with a way to express my feelings, to break free from my own reality in a poetic vision of the world. Whether using a Leica with black and white film or working with a digital camera for my color images, the intent remains the same. Overall, I would like my photographs to evoke feelings in my viewers' hearts and minds. I just follow my dreams and react to my surroundings. I feel my technique and knowledge has evolved over time, but my style remains true to who I am.
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Sea Sketches #76
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L.A.: What kind of relationship do you have with the contexts you are shooting? What's your degree of involvement with these?
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Sandrine Hermand Grisel: I photograph what I love. “Nocturnes” are close-up portraits of those dearest to me: family and close friends. “Waterlilies” are the fleeting moments of youth and the overwhelming love I have for my children. “Sea Sketches” captures the beauty of the land and the color of the light of my personal paradise, Anna Maria Island. All my work is mostly about the sensations and emotions that I hope my images may bring about in the observer. Since my subjects are so important to me, I feel deeply connected to them and spend a lot of time trying to achieve on paper what I visualize in my mind.
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L.A.: Are you working on any other projects currently?
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Sandrine Hermand Grisel: I've got a secret project that I'm not quite ready to reveal to the public yet, but I will share that it's a mixed media project. Something very different for me than a traditional print or a two-dimensional work. I am quite excited to further develop this new series as well as to release it to the world. You'll just have to wait a bit longer!
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Sea Sketches #17
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Sandrine Hermand Grisel www.hermandgrisel.com
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