INTERVIEW

____ 1. Hello Yanick, thanks for taking the time to answer the following questions! Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how you first discovered photography?

My father introduce me to photography just like a lot of kids. I got a little 110 camera to take some snapshots occasionally and I was trying to do it just like him. He was an amateur photographer, shooting with a medium format camera, namely the Mamiya 645. I remember spending lots of time looking at all the photography magazines in his library.

I always loved photography, the final result and the technical aspect of the art, but never thought about working and making money as a professional photographer. Even when it was the time to choose what to study at College, I wanted to go in "Publicity" but in my College book program. Thank god, I saw the photography course before the publicity one. That got me... not a joke. It was a revelation and I started to realize that some people get paid to take pictures. That day is still clear in my mind, as well as the reaction of my mother when I told her my choice was made... I wanted to be a succesfull photographer. When I graduated from Collège d'études générales et professionelles du Vieux-Montréal in 1993, I was already in business.

____ 2. You started off as a press photographer covering sports and special events. What led you into fashion photography?

In my third year at school, I was working as a press photographer for 2 local newspapers to pay for my photography classes. Doing fashion images was a part of my program and one of the agencies really liked my work (and my good prices), and I started to do a lot of portfolios for their models. The feedback was great and I started to work with several agencies in Montreal. After a year, I decided to go to Paris to explore a little more the fashion industry. I did several trip to the French city to gain experience and define my vision.

____ 3. Since you've been in the industry, how have the changes in fashion affected your work?

I love images as much as I love technology. In today's digital photography, it’s a very exciting period and creating images has never been so easy! Changes in fashion have not specifically affected my work. It has rather been a natural evolution of personal skill and style that has more affected my final images.

When I started, fashion was just fun for me. It slowly transformed from there into a specific fashion direction. A big part of what attracted me to fashion photography was the team work. The fact that you need to lead a team to achieve what you have in mind. It’s more engaging and challenging, and the rewards are richer for me. My passions haven’t changed so much as evolved. Age and experience have played a large part, as well as the importance of my growing family. Getting behind the camera will always be where I find my bliss, though, no matter what the shoot.

____ 4. What do you think of models and fashion design?

Well, the fashion industry is changing a lot. Specially today in this hectic economy, I think it is time to change something. I can't wait to see some more healthy models in the runway. They don't seems to enjoy life. Put some smile on their face and it will be a revolution. Can you imagine if a fashion designer use some healthy models smiling during the show. Don't you think everybody will talk about it. Instead of that, they all do the same, yet pretend to be different.

____ 5. At the age of 16, you embarked on an 'apprenticeship of the world'. What was the best lesson you got out of it?

I almost never worked as an assistant. I thought I was able to take picture and saw no reason for not getting jobs. But unfortunatly, photography is a very little part of the business as a photographer. Building relationship is way more imprtant and it takes time to build a reputation. It is also very hard to get good budget when you are too young because it represents a lot of money for a client to give the challenge to a photographer to create their image. If it is not perfect, it can cost a lot more than just the shoot. It can dramaticly reduce the sales and the profit, and put the company on the wrong path. This is why a serious company is paying good money to the great photographer. They simply can not take a risk on this. Assisting good photographers will not only benefit your knowledge of the technical part of the job, but also the way you deal with clients, trouble, models, productions, money, and a lot more... My honest advice for a young photographer is to find a good photographer and do everything that is needed in order to make everything work for him or her. That also includes making coffee, cleaning the studio, scaning business cards, going to the grocery for the team, and all the things you know the photographer does not like to do, just like you don't. If you can't get paid for this give as much as you can, and find an other job to pay your bills. Consider this time as a learning curve, and not simply hard work. One day you will get paid one way or another, but most assistantships are a big step in order to become successful.

From the very begining, there was one thing I knew for sure. You never know what will bring you something back. I did some big moves that was a sure shot, and didn't get anything in return. In the other side, I did get some big money jobs in a very inexpected way.

____ 6. What do you define as the style of your photography?

My style, wow. I prefer to let other people describe it. It sounds better than what I could say ;-) I don't know what style people perceive, but my style of shooting is very easy to describe. I am not using tripods most of the time. I like to have the freedom to move quickly, and I shot tons of images. I am using fast equipment to make sure to capture everything I want to capture. The shot between 2 shots is often the one I like. I have my way to shoot for sure, but I like to think that I can offer a wide range of final results.

What I like the most is the emotion that I can transmit, play with the light, the composition, and get something that not so many people can. I like to go against the crowd, even if I can do the same. I don't feel the need to produce the same stuff as everyone else and fashion is always a trend. You look at creative magazine and it all looks very similar. I do my best to do what I feel to do instead of taking my inspiration in someone else work.

____ 7. Do you remember your first well-known photo? How did you complete it ?

The first image that was on billboard all over the city of Montreal in 1993 was a picture of a motocross for the most prestigious motocross event in Canada. The client is still around today in 2009 and one of my best customers. In the fashion industry, I did many campaigns that were used on billboard and magazines, but the one that I am really proud is my first one. I was 19 years old.

____ 8. Do you prefer working with film or digital, and why?

What is film? Haha, just kidding. I have seen my first digital camera in 1993 and I knew this was to be my tool one day. It took about 9 years to get my first DSLR, a Canon D60, 6 megapixels. I then upgraded to the Canon 1D mark II, 1Ds Mark II, 1Ds mark III and recently I bought the 5D mark II to play around with. I LOVE shoting digital. In this business, it is a freedom tool. It might not be the same as the film, but I am more concern about the content of the image than I am with the 12 bit vs 16 bit vs film look-alike discussion. The most important thing is to be able to capture the image you have in mind and I find it hundred time easier with my tools today than with my old RZ67, or Pentax 67, even if those cameras were so much fun to work with.

____ 9. You're also quite the entrepreneur, having extended your photography service to include visual effects and retouching services, amongst others. Are there other business plans in the pipeline?

I love to share my knowledge with other people and I am very open person. I will do some workshops about photography, retouching, and the most important aspect: Business. I have several ideas constantly in mind, but right now some of my dreams are coming true with a project to raise money for various Foundations. It is called the 360 degree book project and besides raising a lot of money for a good cause, I will be able to travel the world with my team. It is a book with 360 pages that represents 360 degrees, and a world tour. Our goal is to promote donations to Foundations. Each page is available at a predetermied value and if people want to be in the book, thay have to make a donation to a Foundation of their choice for the value of the page. The donation includes a photoshoot, a page in the book and a copy of the book. The value of donation goes between 110 Euros to 1 Million Euros for the first page. More details on my website. For people who have a foundation and are interested to receive donations, you can contact me and we can work on something to help you reach your goals.

____ 10. When conceptualising shoots, what is your thought process like? How do you strive to keep every shoot as unique as possible and what inspires you?

I am not concerned about doing something unique. I do a lot of personal work for me, and I do commercial images for my client. When a client wants something, I give them what they want and do it the best way I can. They pay me to deliver what they want and receive a selection of more personal images. Clients hire me from what they’ve seen on my website or in my portfolio, and therefore appreciate my style and vision, and also because they know they will have the shoot done with the best team available for their project. But naturally each client has specific demands, and a specific end result they need, and I never allow my personal creative needs to overshadow this. I shoot editorials in a more personal way than most commercial jobs. For a total creative outlet, I shoot many “creatives”, and take “risks” on these personal shoots.

I love Steven Meisel, Craig Mc Dean and Annie Leibovitz. The creativity of those artist are exceptional. The final result is always impeccable and there is a wide range of final looks. They don't do always it using the same formula, but you can always tell who took the shot. Good magazines for inspiration in the fashion business are Italian Vogue, W as well as the big productions like Dolce&Gabana, Gucci and others. However, I am not looking that much at magazines to inspire me, but rather try to find my inspiration in other mediums. For instance, some project on my website was inspired by my kids book. Some others come from real life images. I am really open to "the moment" when I shoot. I am so passionate about photography, when I have my eye in the viewfinder, it is an other world. The possibility to ask people to do anything you can imagine for the pretext of a picture is amazing. You can ask almost anything you want to anyone, and they will do it. As long as you get great result with this, people will trust you. Life inspires me, the moment inspires me.

____ 11. Have you ever lost inspiration to shoot photos? How do you get through those times?

I believe that shooting fashion is a team work. I remember being stressed out on a shot because I was not sure of what i wanted as a final result, and the people I was working with were also beginners. But I am now very confident on what I can accomplish and I make sure to work with great people. When I am not sure about something, I ask other people some feedback and listen carefully. There is some situation where it is harder to get a nice shot, but I know that the final result will be there. All photoshoots are carefully prepared, but of course, I do some experimentation. Loosing inspiration means that you don't know what to do, and you can't manage to produce a great image. In my case, when I don't like what I see, i keep working until I get it. For a commercial project, it is almost impossible to lose inspiration.

____ 12. Care to give us a look at your workspace?

I am very happy with my new studio on Rue Viau in Montréal, Canada. I bought that space after extensive planning starting in October 2007. Thus, I finally got it one year later, in October 2008. It is not too big, and it is great space to work with my team. I feel very lucky every morning too, because I can actually walk to my studio for work.

When I moved my studio, I had the chance to look at some work I did in my very begining when we cleaned out the old studio. I had a strange feeling of being there, almost 20 years ago. That is photography. It takes you right back in time in a second. Photography stops the time. A photography will always tell you somethiong about the time, the economy, the feeling of a person. There is always something more behind the image. It is the essence of nature.

____ 13. Where would you like to work and who with?

I would love to work with Chinese clients. I never had the chance to go there but I always dreamed of going to China, not only for work, but also to inspire my creativity, my art. I think it is one of the best place to be on the planet for a fashion photographer at the moment. I have the feeling that there is a lot of potential to develop new way of doing things. I think Chinese people are very creative and want to express their feelings. There is a lot of unreal images coming from China. For the most part, I have seen chinese work in the books of models who went to China for work. All of them gave me very positive feedback about the work they did and how nice the people are in China. Maybe it will be the best place to start my Book project to raise money for the participating Foundations. That being said, I would really much like to travel, so international projects would mean the world to me.

____ 14. What work are you most proud of? and why?

The shot I was most proud of, I didn’t actually do myself. But I only found this out after my dad passed away. When I was five years old, I had chased a rabbit, and snapped his picture with my little 110mm I had then. The developed image my dad gave me was great, and I have treasured that photo all my life, so proud that it had come out so well, and the picture my dad had supposedly taken at the same time, had just shown a small disappearing blur in a very large landscape! My shot had been the best! Well, going through some things of my dad’s, I found the developed roll of his film, showing “my” shot as having come from his camera! I’m still proud of the picture, though.

____ 15. Do you yourself take part in post-making of the photos?

It is one of my strongest field. I am not doing all the retouching at the studio, but I am involved in every single one. I know how to acheive the look I want by myself. The digital darkroom is the best thing a photographer can have. That said, I do my best to have the best shot right on the set. I try to avoid post processing as much as I can. However, in the fashion industry there is certain things that just have to be done after the shoot.

____ 16. Have you fulfilled your dreams in photography?

No. And no matter what I am doing, I will always have new dream, new ideas of what to do, how to do it, etc. If my answer would be yes, what would be the reason to continue taking pictures? When you acheive a dream, you work towards a new one. Of course, I have reach some goals and my business is prosperous, but I just started this amazing new book project to collect a lot of money to help other people in the world.

____ 17. What are the key points to take good fashion photographs?

For the final result, there is only one: Emotion. If you look at an image and there is no feeling, for me, it is not a great picture. To get this result however, you need a good model, a good photographer, a stylist, makeup and more. Everything and everyone is important. This is why we pay a lot for the entire team when we are working on big clients. It is a team work. If you have something looking wrong in the picture, I can't look at anything else. You don't look at a picture just for the composition, or just the model, or the makeup. You look at it as an entire peice of art.

____ 18. Is it more difficult to work with celebrities?

Sometimes you have to be faster to acheive the final result. Overall though, to my experience, it is the same because I talk to everybody the same way, no matter how famous they are. I don't really care about that. What I want is a great picture, and I am working with the people in front of the camera the same way. It is important for me that they feel great, and I am talking a lot when shooting.