“I like the accident, the unexpected in a picture. It really is a delicate balance between control and letting go.” – Amélie Ambroise
阿梅莉·安布鲁瓦兹是一位摄影师和艺术家，她的作品游走于时尚、摄影和材料的物理实验之间。.
A pair of bare feet moves across dark wooden floorboards, captured in a moment of fluid motion. Shot in monochrome, overlapping exposures and motion blur trace the dancer’s movement, with layers of translucent fabric shifting around the body. Though ostensibly a photograph, it feels closer to something physical. Texture, movement and light come together to transform a fleeting moment into something tactile and enduring, embodying the instinctive, hands-on approach that runs through Ambroise’s work.
Ambroise always knew she would pursue a creative career, although she wasn’t sure exactly what form it would take. After high school, she enrolled in photography school, and, as she puts it, “it turns out I never stopped.”
Her seven years working as a digital operator for the great 彼得·林白 had an even greater impact on how she approaches her work. Beyond his photography, she remembers the atmosphere on his shoots: joyful, simple, and unpretentious. She was struck by the way people responded to Lindbergh’s presence, even those known for being difficult or demanding. “Yes, I think that’s his biggest lesson for me: keep things simple and unpretentious. Stay focused on the emotion and the creation of the picture; everything else is of little importance.”
That same simplicity carries into her life in the countryside, where her house is surrounded by fields. She pays close attention to nature, the light, the changing seasons and the work in the garden. She is also very much a hands-on person, filling her time with plasterwork, basketry, embroidery and stop-motion animation. “My hands need to be kept busy,” she says. “That’s where ideas come from.” For Ambroise, the space around her has become its own kind of luxury: “big space is my everyday luxury.”
Her influences range from the photography of Sarah Moon to the films of Michel Gondry, while dance and the body in motion also play an important role in how she thinks about images. That interest in movement has increasingly found its way into her own work, particularly through video.
When making a photograph, Ambroise usually begins with a vague idea and a few sketches, but deliberately leaves room for things to change. She doesn’t want to dictate every detail, instead giving the model and the rest of the team space to interpret the idea and potentially take it somewhere unexpected. “I like the accident, the unexpected in a picture. It really is a delicate balance between control and letting go.” In the end, she trusts her eye and instinct to make the final decision.
That hands-on approach also carries into what happens after the shoot. For Ambroise, post-production is as important as the shooting process itself. She prints, folds, draws on, and reshoots her photographs, bringing the physical process of making back into the image.
Paper has become an especially important material. “I love paper, its texture and what it can bring to a project,” she explains. “I think what I like best is the bespoke aspect; there is no off-the-shelf formula, every project is different and deserves specific attention.”
More recently, Ambroise has taken this approach into video with what she calls her “moving sketchbook”. She began the project as a way to experiment with different techniques and find a form of video-making that felt natural to her as a photographer. Rather than approaching video like a filmmaker, she wanted to create from a photographer’s perspective, taking the time to explore and try things out. It is another space where she can experiment, develop her own way of working, and, importantly, leave room for the unexpected.
所有图片版权所有 阿梅莉·安布鲁瓦兹