I’m Thomas, film photographer based in French Loire Valley. I am passionate about travel, sources of experiences and new encounters, the mysterious and magical process of film photography and the art of telling stories with pictures. These passions have been brought together for several years in the service of couples who are looking for an artistic way to preserve and share their story forever.
I photograph couples, families, individual portraits but especially weddings, my specialty. My approach aims to apply fine art photography to tell a couple’s story by creating a harmonious collection of images that tell more than a single wedding day.
My photographs combine intimacy and spontaneity. For me, the beauty of an image comes from its ability to suggest what makes the uniqueness of each person, each place, each object, each ceremony.
Born in 1982 in Rouen (french Normandy), I trained academically as an archaeologist until my doctorate in Tours (Loire Valley). For 15 years, I discovered the heritage splendours of Jordan, Syria, Egypt or Iraq as well as the prestigious universities of Yale and Princeton (USA). The many encounters during these trips allowed me to develop my artistic culture and refine my aesthetic tastes.
Although familiar with photography by my father, it was only when a friend lent me a film camera that I considered this medium as a possible tool of artistic creation. A long period of experimental trial and error then opens up… Driven by a creative desire, I take every opportunity to learn, spending my evenings studying technique, composition and color theories… During this period of learning, my real ambition is gradually revealed: to make photography my profession.
In 2016, a meeting with Philippe Bachelier, printer of the famous French-Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado, proved decisive in this creative process. He taught me the art of development and printing, unique with film photography. Since that initiation, the exclusive choice of film and its timeless treatment has been a pillar of Thomas Lepaon Photography, a philosophy that is still followed today.
I like simple and natural photographs. I am convinced that the real beauty of a portrait comes from the ability to capture what makes each model, every place, every object, every event unique… I try to marry intimacy and spontaneity for each photograph… It is not a question of giving a raw and documentary representation of the subject but rather of revealing its beauty.
I don’t like “Vogue” photographs with a perfectly primed model, taking a sophisticated attitude falsely casual like wax statues without expression, without asperity, without personality. I don’t like artificial poses that turn babies into decorative objects, children into small adults. I don’t like the idea of treating all subjects in the same way by making them fit into a standardized aesthetic setting as aesthetic or fashionable as it is…
If it were necessary to find an aesthetic inspiration, it would be that of Johannes Vermeer, the most photographer of painters. This discreet Dutch artist is known for bathing his subjects in abundant natural light, producing fresh works in vibrant colours.
I love the beautiful bright images made in natural light with the subject highlighted by a shallow depth of fields.
Film photography offers an inimitable rendering of colors, naturally restores skin tones, produces grain giving its character to black and white images, gives movements a timeless rendering.
My inspiration comes from modern and contemporary art. I admire the fashion photographs of Peter Lindbergh, the poetic inspirations of Elizabeth Messina, the portraits of Eugène Manet, the Loire Valley Renaissance architecture, the graphic creations of Jean-Michel Basquiat, the “Art Nouveau” creations from the early 20th century, or the genius of the interior designer Charlotte Perriand.
These artists fascinate me with their continued desire to outmode the fashion of their time, their courage to be vulnerable by exposing their art to the world and their ability to create connections between people of all cultures.
