OCEANOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE: Well, you have the award win under your belt and the launch of a new book supported by the gallery exhibition in Paris\u2026 You\u2019ve been busy! What\u2019s next for you?<\/p>\n
BEN THOUARD: Yes, I feel like these three books are making a whole series \u2013 a triptych in Surface, Turbulences, and Aqua Obscura\u2026 so I think I will have to find a new way to reinvent myself. I want to keep shooting for books and exhibitions because that\u2019s what I like the most. But I\u2019ll need to find a new subject. That\u2019s why I love photography, because I don\u2019t really enjoy shooting things twice or over and over again. I think this can be something of a strength because it forces you to be curious and dig even deeper to create something new.\u00a0<\/p>\n
OCEANOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE: That\u2019s really interesting. So what is it that keeps you creative or re-energises you creatively? Are there other photographers, other artists that influence you?<\/p>\n
BEN THOUARD: I really look up to other photographers in general. I have a few that I really admire. And I really like to buy a lot books. I really enjoy being inspired by someone else\u2019s work. I think it recharges your power of creating.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But just as important is being curious and always going deeper or pushing the boundaries of photography; using different lenses, different techniques, and different approaches. At least, that how these last three books came to be created.\u00a0<\/p>\n
OCEANOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE: And are there any names that you\u2019d like to drop now, as those sources of creativity in you?\u00a0<\/p>\n
BEN THOUARD: There are a lot, but I\u2019ve been really amazed by Ernst Haas \u2013 a photographer from the 1950s and \u201860s. He worked with a lot of black and white photography, with slow shutters and transmitting a lot of movement into his work.\u00a0He has a body of work that is all about colours \u2013 which is quite amazing. His subjects are always interesting. But the techniques he was using, back in the \u201860s before digital \u2013 I have always been in awe of that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But there are many talented young photographers today. And pretty much every day of my life I am looking at someone\u2019s work on social media and feeling very inspired by it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
OCEANOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE: Okay, so two questions off the back of that. Is it harder or easier today to do something new \u2013 to find a new edge to something? And the second question is, what really captures your attention today?<\/p>\n
BEN THOUARD: I get a lot of questions from young photographers asking me how I got started? What can they do? Asking me for advice, and honestly\u2026 it\u2019s hard to give them a response. It was very different when I started. When I started, it was the very beginning of digital; I was still shooting on film for a strong magazine industry. I would go out, shoot my photo and then present my ten best to magazines. Then I would get cover, or one spread, or one single page \u2013 and you would get paid for that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t happen like this anymore. I think it\u2019s harder to start as a professional because the way the landscape has changed so dramatically. But then again, there are a lot of new tools to use to put your work out there and reach out to companies, athletes, or artists. So, I feel it\u2019s easier to show your work, but harder because there are so many people doing exactly that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Also, before you used to have art galleries and magazines with photo editors and art directors who would curate photographers and works. Now, this kind of job seems to have disappeared. It\u2019s for everyone now to make their own judgment. Which is great for accessibility\u2026 but the landscape is very different today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OCEANOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE: Well, you have the award win under your belt and the launch of a new book…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-195376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}