The great Haitian painter Sebastien Jean in Paris in 2010 for an artist residence (Paris)

A previous portrait representing Sebatien Jean has been posted on Portrait Lab the 30/01/2011

Angela Donhauser and Kai Kühne (two of the members of the ASFOUR international fashion designers team I visited at their studio and shot in New-York in 2000. It was before Kai Kühne left and they became the ThreeASFOUR) (Paris)

Unpublished portrait representing the artist Laetitia Benat in Paris in 2001 (Paris)

Two previous portraits representing Laetitia have been posted on Portrait Lab the 07/09/2011

Back in Paris. Selfportrait in a cab with Julie (France)

Italian lady reading a magazine at her apartment's window (Roma)

A view of Roma's Museo Orto Botanico. And young Italian woman in a bar (Italy)

A view of my hotel's backyard. And a Japanese tourist in center Roma (Italy)

Flying above Les Alpes on my way to Italia. And Julie just after landing in Roma (Italy)

Julie, tired, in the train back from Normandy (France)

Jan, Jonas cousin, playing ping-pong at the end of the day (Normandy)

A previous portrait representing jan has been posted on Portrait Lab the 15/07/2011

Jonas travelling by train with his cousin from Paris to Deauville (France)

John Waterval sells clothes, magazines, books,.... and collects art. I photographed him in his Maastricht office in 2008 (just after the solo exhibition I had in his gallery) (Paris)

Jonas and me in Ibiza in 2008 (Paris)

Photo: Julie Ceresne

Today, I had tea and a long talk with my friend Fanny Deblock. The first time I met her, she was a teenager. I'm truly fascinated by the beautiful and self-aware woman she became (Paris)

A previous portrait representing Fanny has been posted on Portrait Lab the 09/07/2011

N'gor beach man (colour work). Dakar, 2010 (Paris)

Laura Collet for Kilimanjaro - London, 2010. I met her in a French restaurant where she was working as a waitress, and really liked her style (Paris)

Pretty young woman I shot in a Paris street in 2001 (Paris)

The great Jonas Mekas in New-York in 2000. I traveled there to photograph him, because I was a great admirer of his work and freedom (Paris)

Barbara Dupin waiting for a friend at a Montmartre café terrace (Paris)

Text/ Portrait of P.

PORTRAIT OF A MISSED FRIEND

His young body entombed for eternity in this long varnished box? Hard to believe.
The coffin, held by two cords, slowly slips into its grave, the heavy silence of the cemetery hardly troubled by quiet sobs. Some murmured goodbyes, several roses thrown below ground and here we are walking towards the exit, in sad and quivering little groups.
I had not seen him in a long time and had only heard occasional updates. Everything about him was shrouded by an aura that was captivating, though sometimes repulsive. 
Nearing the cars, tongues loosened. We let ourselves laugh, reminiscing about his endearing, delinquent personality.
During his last detox, he supposedly seduced several nurses and had sex with the director on her desk, before moonlighting as the coach of the local soccer club.
In his own shameless way, he was the greatest seducer that we had ever known. The kind who expertly handles women, but without any passion, because, as he confided in me once in his hoarse voice, “believe me man, when it comes to pleasure, nothing beats smack.”
Just as he had prophesized during one of our nights of bingeing, we found him stiff, alone in an attic apartment, holding his last syringe.
What remains of him for us are dozens of hilarious memories that his tragic destiny shrouds, in hindsight, in an ironic fate.
He was a misfit with an uncertain charm, an impulsive who lived in the present, without thoughts or plans, which gave every one of his acts a rare authenticity. 
He was a bluffer, and a tightrope walker exercising his gift of acting in the precarious settings of daily life.
The thought of never seeing him again troubles me profoundly. A bit like the attentive observation of a candle dwindling, at the moment when the flame transforms itself into a grayish smoke escaping from a charred wick, soon dead and shriveled.

Text published in my book Spirit (2008)

Translated from French by Nicolas Allinder

Underexposed selfportrait (Paris)

Overexposed selfportrait (Paris)

Working almost all day long at retouching pictures (like the French boxer Alexis Vastine's portrait series for l'Optimum) on my computer screen (Paris)

Anna Maria Gomes is a film maker. I met her after a viewing of a Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt film at Centre Pompidou. I like her beautiful and intense face (Paris)

My dear friend Mati Diop is one of the winners of the Rotterdam Festival Tiger awards for short films. Lovely and talented Mati (Paris)

                    

Joey Starr with tattoo. Unpublished,1995 (Paris)

Jonas in the winter light (Paris)

Julie preparing some herbal tea with honey at the end of a freezing day (Paris)

Today I had lunch with my brother Axel. We had a talk about the future. And it wasn't really optimistic... (Paris)