Antoine Doyen

When not shooting, it’s always good to meet colleagues in a casual way! Me and a few used to meet every Monday around 8:30 in the morning, but we gradually stopped that…

A few weeks ago, we’ve started all again, only now it’s Wednesday! We usually stay at the bar for an hour, just enough time to get the last news, share our situations or give a few advices to one another… This week, I’ve asked Arnaud(photo), a co-founder of photo sharing website Darqroom, to join us.

I opened myself on my twitter about a few flaws in his website. Next thing I know, he was direct-messaging then calling me, so we could talk about what was wrong. Speaking as a photographer working both for editiorial and weddings, I thought a few options were missing. Nonetheless, I know Darqroom is quite young on the market and I was positively satified to see his creator was so open to advices & discussion, not ashamed to fix bugs or anything.

This Wednesday morning, Arnaud was right to bring his notepad: Pierre, Carl, Jean-Marie and the others told him a lot about what they liked or not. As far as I’m concerned, I’ve been waiting for a long time, having something like Smugmug in France. Unlimited storage space for HD pictures, being able to order prints… Darqroom still have to fix the glitches, though.

Of course, I’ll publish a complete test as soon as I can. In the meantime, if you’re already a Darqroom member, I’d be curious to know what you think of it. Feel free to comment!

Friday night, I was with my girlfriend & Blogothèque’s friends in more than gorgeous an appartment to see Vampire Weekend perform!

This was truly awesome and, of course, I shot a couple of pics for the occasion:

“Soirée de Poche #12: Vampire Weekend” on Flickr

If you don’t know what the “Soirée de Poche” (lit. “pocket night”) is, check out their website! You can see a beautiful video of Patrick Watson, and others. Those are the same guys behing the take away shows…

A “POM” is a “Petit Objet Multimedia”, understand: “small multimedia object”. Neither a slide, nor a video… something else between both. Wilfrid Estève, a french photographer, is the one who launched this kind of approach, with “Territoires de Fiction” (“Fictional Territories”). So, when I attended the EMI-CFD in the end of 2007, I quickly went to know I’d have to make one. Today, it’s done! A friend if mine edited the materials I gave her, a sound engineer got to fix the sound… and here we are. Any comments are welcome! While I’m already wondering about the next one…

Temps Mort

December 2007: I’m entering a course in photojournalism at the EMI-CFD school. Among our “teachers” is Mat Jacob, from Tendance Floue. His course: “bring your guts on the table”. We all need to find a personal story to tell, whatever it might be made for, either press or an exhibition, maybe a “P.O.M.”…

I think about my grandfather’s death. Gone too soon, we didn’t have enough time to play Django Reinhardt’s “Nuages” in his entirety… Since then, despite her good mood, my grandmother feels quite lonely. She patiently waits for death to come. What’s happening in her head is really intriguing me… but how could I possibly portray the time that flies? Everywhere in the house, signs of my grandfather… nothing’s changed.

I come from time to time to Vigneulles, in Meuse (France), where hi-speed train goes, yet doesn’t stop. Her hips ache, she doesn’t go out too often. Weakened legs, bearing a blurry reality her eyes can’t quite accomodate… medicine for everything. She bears a remote as a medallion, to call an aid at the hospital… just in case. She rarely wears it. Too big… what’s the point, anyway?

She lives right in front of the cemetery. Slowly, days go by and look alike. She reads “Femme Actuelle”, goes deep into crossword, she drowse in front of some show in the TV, something like “Maestro”, a classical music one… My grandfather, once a jazzman, used to love it. What about him coming back for the late show?

Time flies. My grandma waits.

Editing: Cyrielle Thelot (with Valérie Derrien) / Sound mixing: Stephen Des Aulnois