20 Questions with Laurent Auxietre
You may remember Laurent from a piece that I did on his ethnic photography a little while ago. He was kind enough to answer some of my questions and allow them to be shared here with my readers.
1. What did you have for breakfast this morning?
Nothing exciting to tell you the truth, plain rice and a banana. I’d rather keep it safe especially in a country like India.
I know this is going to sound patriotic, but everything inspires me in Paris. I could never get tired of the place. I was born and raised in this city, it’s home! But strangely I don’t really find any particular inspiration in terms of street portraits, unlike I would in exotic countries for instance. Life is strange, or maybe it’s just me.
Well I am very much into Nine Inch Nails, Baraka soundtrack, Placebo, Smashing Pumpkins and many more!
I’ve always love photography, ever since I was a little child, looking at my great grand fathers photo from the early 20th century. I just got naturally into it for traveling here and there… I came up to the point that I had to leave my mark!
Watching TV documentaries, looking at McCurry’s shots and many other reasons. I am very conscious that tribe cultures are quickly fading away meanwhile time is passing by. Nothing will ever be the same in a few years from now on. When you get to travel to some exotic places and come across extraordinary faces, you just feel like you want to freeze the moment forever, at least that’s what I feel.
The usual: Canon 5D with primes. 35mm 1.4, 50mm 1.4, 85mm 1.8. Lightroom and CS3.
The very same as I’m doing right now. There are so many cultures to explore and faces to shoot in this world. I want to do them all. And the good thing is that its getting better and better every time.
All the great photographers such as Avedon, McCurry, Doisneau etc. The movie Baraka was also a big shot in my photographer’s life.
I’m great at sleeping. This is something I do really well :)
I would say the movie Baraka for sure… No words needed, just watch it.
Nothing that crazy has ever happened to me, can you believe it? Dull life ehh!
Anywhere with no tourists.
A 30 Euros plane ticket from Delhi to Ahmedabad… ain’t that sweet?
Traveling all across the globe as much as I want to. Now that would be nice!
An empty bottle of water, a truck wheel and a chair.
Never judge someone at first sight.
A leather bracelet that my mama gave me when I was a child.
A cat and fishes. My place is indeed a world of antagonism.
I would just be traveling I suppose.
Take a guess… :)
Many thanks to Laurent for this interview! If you’d like to learn more about him, his blog is here, and his website, here.
This space is so inspiring to me. Lots of space and storage, and it’s so organized! I think I would like a studio that looked like this, but I also think that I’d like everything in it. You can see more pictures 
Wouldn’t you just love to ride off around the world, taking interesting pictures of interesting people? His portraits exhibit a really remarkable humanity, I think. You feel like you’re just witnessing a passing moment in their lives, instead of making them stand still and pose for a tourist photo.
