Michael Stuhlbarg for The Wall Street Journal
March 16, 2023A very short sitting with Your Honor co-star Michael Stuhlbarg for The Wall Street Journal, we could only get 10 minutes without set-up time at the Paramount+ offices in midtown. I tried to make the best of it.
Jentai/ EP cover
March 15, 2023My old friend Ernesto, who goes by Jentai, released a new EP if you’re into Venezuelan hip hop.
I went to photograph him around his house in Rockaway last month.
Here are a couple of outtakes.
Fragments of a season in hell
March 15, 2023On November 22nd, my mother Anne passed away after a long agony.
These past 2 years, as her already precarious health became critical, every French numbers that popped on my phone sent a shiver down my spine.
That call eventually came on November 15th, the broken voice of my father: “Viens. Vite.”
I don’t remember much after that, everything is obscured and blurred, only occasionally lightened by the kindness of strangers; the photo-editor i was canceling on; the older Israeli man next to me on the plane who held my hand and recited the kaddish; most of all, the discreet heroes at hospital Bichat ICU department and particularly two wonderful women, night nurses Aurore and Paola who I will never forget.
I spent 6 days and 5 nights there.
Those are a few images from my diary, some fragments of a season in hell.
Overnight stays aren’t usually allowed but Aurore and Paola installed me a chair with a couple blankets and pillows, they even got me a toothbrush.
For some reason, it is forbidden to photograph hospital staff in France, so i photographed that chair which embodied to me their profound humanity.
Hopital Bichat is huge, a city in the city, I would just get lost in the empty corridors at night trying to find a coffee machine that worked, smoking some cigarettes and crying on the parking lot.
I was trying to stay awake in front of the second game of France at the World Cup.
A long beep. A flat line on a screen.
I knew but I was in denial. I ran out the room, found a doctor, told him the machine was broken.
It was over.
My father, the morning after.
Katie flew in from New York, I showed her around Paris.
The funeral happened, It was nice, my mother was very loved. I didn’t take photos.
A few days later, on a gloomy morning, I went to the Pere Lachaise crematorium to pick up her ashes.
It was a weird moment.
I took the subway back, with that sport bag containing my mum remains on my shoulder and tears rolling down my cheeks.
We are from a place in the South of France called Longarisse, a strip of land stuck between the Atlantic Ocean and a big lake.
It was my mother’s happy place.
It was a cold and crisp morning, we walked with my dad to her favorite place, the pointe du Bernos, to spread her ashes; and it was sad, and it was beautiful.
Prince, Bushwick.
November 9, 2022My friend, neighbor, Bushwick style icon, also my dog’s favorite person in the world, Prince stopped by the house last week for a quick sitting.
Prince will be getting gender affirming surgery at the end of the year, on top of medical expenses, he will have to take time off work. Any help is welcomed, donate here!
Robert Nava’s book is out!
November 9, 2022I received Robert Nava’s new book and I was absolutely thrilled to get this much space in it. Buy a copy here!
Robert Nava for PACE gallery
September 8, 2022It was lucky, a few months ago, to be asked by PACE gallery to visit the studio and shoot portraits of painter & Bushwick neighbor Robert Nava for his first book, sold here.
Many thanks to Amelia Redgrift for her renewed trust.
The shot list also included Jumanji, Robert’s cat, which i enthusiastically embraced.
Meredith Marshall for The Real Deal
August 29, 2022Meredith Marshall is the co-founder of BRP Companies, now among NYC’s top developers.
Eran Chen for The Real Deal
August 29, 2022Eran Chen is an Israeli-American architect.
My friend Jared Eggers, musician. Bushwick
August 29, 2022Harassing my friend and neighbor Jared who hates having his photo taken, while also drinking his beers and smoking his cigarettes.
He wasn’t that mad, he even serenaded me.