His father a math’s teacher and his mother an accountant, Alain Longeaud’s life seemed destined to revolve around figures, Cartesian concepts that explain the world. After studying mathematics and the piano, he came to realise that logic is not everything, that emotion and artistic creation opens other doors.
Seminal encounters with the photographers Helmut Newton – whom he assisted for several years – Bill Brandt and Ralph Gibson proved decisive. “I will be a photographer”. Longeaud commenced a successful and lengthy career in fashion and beauty photography collaborating with major French and Italian magazines, traveling throughout the world. During this period he developed his personal imagery in black and white. However, with the advent of the computer age, Longeaud found what he had long been searching for… the ability to create his own world from the world around him, reworking and mastering colour.
“In the instant that I am poised to take a photo, my imagination sees something other than what is before me. That my photo creates it’s own world and only that which comes from within is important. One doesn’t take a photo, one reveals it. For me, each image a universe unto itself, each image it’s own story.”
He likes to quote Gérard Richter: “I obey neither intention, nor system, nor trend; I have no program, no pretention. I follow uncertainty, infinity and permanent insecurity”.
