the essential
To his jobs as a journalist and host of successful shows on TF1, Nikos Aliagas has added his passion for photography. He will be one of the guests at the next edition of the MAP festival which will take place in the Saint-Cyprien district in September. Exclusive interview.
La Dépêche du Midi: What did you come to do in Toulouse?
Nikos Aliagas: The artistic director of the MAP festival, Ulrich Lebeuf, called me almost a year ago to participate. And I enjoy it whenever I can share my passion for photography! At the end of June, I came to Toulouse to take photos beforehand, on the periphery of the exhibition during a short residency. And since I like artisans, being the son of artisans myself, I saw the people at the Victor-Hugo market, I spent time with them and also in the street. It’s always moving.
Did the MAP set a framework for you to work within?
No, on the contrary, they gave me carte blanche. I try not to force destiny by saying: “I want such and such a percentage of artisans, elderly people…” I just asked them to sit down in a place to watch people go by. If I could do it 365 days a year, that would be fine with me! It’s never the same story, the light is not the same, the climate, the temperature, and you can see between the lines in the looks, the silences, in the way they hold their shopping bags, in the way they walk their kids to school. You can read between the lines of a society. Today’s reality is quite interesting.
The principle is to dig deep because ultimately a photo remains…
Yes, it remains and it is also a door, a window, the expression of a suspended moment, a decisive, improbable moment, a coincidence. In Toulouse, I photographed a man in a wheelchair with a titanium leg, who had the head of a captain, a pirate. I took a photo and he recognized me. But his brother told him: “No, it’s not him, the real one is smaller!” So I took out my ID card and the situation was a bit picturesque, it allowed us to create a bond and discuss his life. He had his worries, I told him mine too. That’s what photography is, it’s what we see and what we don’t see. And what also interests me when I make and appreciate images is what I don’t know how to express. Today, despite the constant hyper-communication, video doesn’t give too much room to imagination and imposes a path. The photo helps you to project yourself, not to judge either, it’s you who gauges.
Doesn’t your fame make it easier to approach the people you photograph?
So there is always the tense moment, in quotes, of notoriety. But what is interesting is that when I see someone, I photograph them without them seeing me. Or they see me and then we chat, we laugh. If they want me to keep it, then we take others. And 99% of people want me to keep it. It is this first photo that is interesting, when I surprise them! It is true that by being recognized from the start, I lose the naturalness, I lose the situation. So sometimes it is not serious, we can make a very beautiful portrait behind when the person really has something unique. But in general I try to take the photo first and then chat with them. It is easier sometimes abroad when they do not know me from my job on TV or in the media, but it is rare.
Why claim the notion, the status of amateur in photography?
When I talk to Sabine Weiss or other great photographers, they don’t say they are professionals. But even on TV I am an amateur. The day I say “I am a professional”, I am already in a prison. And photography allows me precisely not to be in any posture or claim. It is my breathing and perhaps my real speaking out because I do not speak out in my work, almost deliberately since we are in a generalized cacophony, I just do my job. But I do it, I hope, like a professional, and with the enthusiasm of an amateur!
I know the cameras, all the technique, the history, I can talk with the pros but there is a border between the professional who lives from this and the amateurs. I know what a 35 and a 50 correspond to according to the needs of the light and why Brassaï or Koudelka, for example, took this kind of photos with this camera. So do we start the photo and, from the outside, we only talk about technique? Finally, it is better to know it, let it go and go look for emotion, for the human. Only the human interests me.
