MAYOR Fall/Winter 2024

CLIENT: MAYOR is the luxury brand of the giant fashion group YOUNGOR. It has established strategic partnership and promote the savoir-faire of leading international fabric suppliers LORO PIANA, CERRUTI 1881, ALUMO, and ALBINI.
PROJECT: Production, still photography and cinematography (Fall/Winter 2024 collection)
STUDIO: GARMONBOZIART
ART DIRECTION and PHOTOGRAPHY: Charles Belin de Vregille

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JOURNAL

EARTHWORK // Coffee, ink, egg, wine, oil pastel

JOURNAL OF A JOURNAL

That blog might as well become the journal of my journal. Who knows? Certainly not I.

RORSCHARLES // Coffee, ink, wine, oil pastel on a surprisingly resilient restaurant paper napkin.

JOURNAL

Why not starting a journal. An art journal. I think it’ll give a body to my work and, keeping it open on a still blank page, I might feel its subtle invitation: paint me! Draw me! Write me! And I’ll throw paint and ink and oil and eggs and blood at it with all the intimate violence of my creative pulsions.

PS: I hope I’ll be more consistant with that journal than my blog!

MÓDŪ 魔都

If Beijing was my port of arrival twenty years ago, Shanghai caught my heart and quickly became my first home. I remember falling in love with its heritage buildings strongly inspired -if not built by- the French, the English, the Dutch or the Russian who made a then young Shanghai’s first heart beat start in the late 19th Century, but also brought corruption and drama along.

I remember moonlight nights on some roof tops from the Bund, nested above all and everything with the splendid view of the other side of the Huangpu river, Pudong; its high-rise buildings and, next to me in Puxi (the West bank of the Huangpu), the majestic houses of some Western banks, Consulates, and trading corporations. Both parts of the city making Shanghai look like a real Gotham city.

I still have this image in mind every time I shoot in the streets of Mó Dū, the city of Evil, described early century as a place of light and darkness, goodness and evil. I have done my best to keep the goodness in my own house, with my family and my friends, and I kept the evil out, lurking in the narrow lanes, climbing the brutal structures of a dark mansion, crouching in the corner of a carpeted corridor of a bicentenary hotel in which wood-floors crack their nocturnal complaints.

From Hongkou district and its lugubrious edifices, to the Bund, to the former French Concession fainted complaints of yesterday’s rumble-ghosts can still be heard if you dare entering these sites of memory that bared witness of all human things, best and worst for two hundred years.

This is the Shanghai I made mine. I gladly let other artists depicting the duff version of it, its neon light, shopping malls and feigned gaiety. Shanghai’s best was brought up by the calamitous, the dreadful, the human tragedy, making her one of the world’s most haunting cities. I pay tribute to this Shanghai, I shoot her scars, her stasis, I show the face of this gothic noblewoman that contemporary history wants you not to know about.

MÓDŪ 魔都 came from my intimate knowledge of Shanghai, and this gloomy version of it that I love so much. I have just launched a new IG account dedicated to this series (IG: @shanghai_modu) and have pitched a few publishing houses while, in the meantime, I will be making and sharing as many eerie images as I can that, hopefully, will tickle your romanesque innards.

Below are a few images from MÓDŪ 魔都, shot since 2018 and on-going:

SH25II19

SH25II19, acrylic and ink on rice paper, 42x60cm | 2019

A too short of an art life

Last week we said goodbye to one of the most acclaimed Chinese contemporary artists, my friend 唐宋 (Tang Song). Our studios were next to each other in the art village of Songjiang near Shanghai. That earned me some great art conversation about Marcel Duchamps, and him being an avant-garde painter in the then very different early 80’s China. It also earned me to share with him quite a few drinks as he always had a bottle of wine open around the corner of his studio. Having spent many years in Australia he had developed a taste for Aussie grapes especially, but he also enjoyed the Bordeaux I would bring him.

He used to say my painting is full of humour and I owe him one of my first serious international exhibitions. He was my favorite Chinese abstract painter and we were all longing for more of his works. But no more…

Drawn on a spread open pack of cigarette, this dark and beautiful drawing was given to me by Tang Song, 唐宋 himself; one of the leading figures of the first generation of Chinese contemporary artists. In 1989, his collaborator artist Xiao shot at her own work “Dialogue” as a subversive performance. Tang was mistaken for the shooter and was arrested until Xiao confessed to her gunshot. Both were detained. Later on Tang emigrated to Australia but have since returned to China.

I was supposed to shoot his portrait next time this Summer as soon as the Covid 19 restrictions in Shanghai would be lifted up and I could finally visit my studio. Alas… As an artist I know too well that there are ideas, concepts, projects that cannot suffer any delay. They are like ocean’s waves, they are many, and all look similar but they won’t all carry you to the shore. I missed that wave and I feel very sad about it. Yet, already staring at the horizon to catch the next one, and enjoy vibrating together with the Universe.

Goodbye Tang Song.

Post lockdown reunion

The FnB clique of Shanghai has been craving to share their passion and culinary talent again. It’s a matter of days now before the kitchens can reopen so we’re starting summoning that appetite for life and all things tasty. Thanks Boris Yu for this nightly celebration last night in the form of an epicurean terrace impromptu with la crème de la crème. 8 Michelin star, and many pretenders but all brothers in arms.

I feel extremely grateful to still be so warmly welcomed in the FnB brotherhood and to collaborate with these amazing personalities of the culinary world. After spending 20 years in the industry I still keep my medals in a little box, shine them and look at them sometimes, collecting memories. I now am just an observer. They grant me access to their sanctuaries, they know I know the dance. So they let me in, with my cameras. And I document the behind the scenes of their haut-vol establishments, the kitchen confidential, and try to catch glimpses of the furious heat and the biting cold that make a cook’s daily life.
Special greetings and thanks to Chefs and friends Yann Klein (Maison Lameloise, 1 Michelin star), Alexis Tonard (Mr & Mrs Bund by Paul Pairet), Greg “Goatie or not Goatie” Robinson (UV, 3 Michelin stars), Romain Chapel (Le Comptoir de Pierre Gagnaire, 1 Michelin star) and Stefan Stiller (Taian Table, 3 Michelin stars). You guys rock!

IN GOOD COMPANY

In the mountains of Moganshan (China) with Black Betty and “Here’s Johnny!”

Who said an RB should stay in a studio and not be a trekking companion?

MY FAVORITE GEAR (2021-22)

I thought I’d introduce my creative companions, the four musketeers. It is not a shortlist of all the cameras I own. They are all I own. I of course have a few more on my wishlist but all the work I’ve ever done was produced with these four amazing cameras.

From top to bottom:

• FUJICA GL690 PRO “Golgoth 69”: the GL690 PRO is a rarity. Living close to Japan made this purchase possible. There are other versions of the G but this one only ticks all the boxes. While other Gs have fixed lens this one can receive 3 different focal, making it very versatile. Great advantage over the other models. Secondly, its mechanism involves a black curtain between the roll of film and the aperture that, if closed, allows me to change the lens without spoiling the rest of the film. This is the same idea behind the metal plate on Hasselblad or on my Mamiya RB67 that you slide in between the chamber and the roll to avoid light exposure and allow to change the lens or the back. Another great feature of the Fujica GL690 PRO is the size of the negative, that is a huge 6×9, much bigger than the already vast 6×7. This is probably THE most portable 6×9 medium format camera on the market. It is not life and it definitely is bulkier than your regular 35mm rangefinder camera but trying to find a more compact 6×9 in the medium format world is nearly impossible. Finally, its lens (Fujinon) is extremely sharp, nothing to say. It makes pure crystalline images. I am still not totally convinced by the focusing system but it might be on my part and I should work more on it. For now I’m pretty slow at hitting the nail on the head if I rush so I mainly use Golgoth 69 for well set up, slow shooting of architecture and landscapes.
• MAMIYA C330 “Black Betty”: my very first medium format camera, and the one I would pick among all medium format cameras if I had to use only one for the rest of my life. My first, and my last love. Many compare it to the Rolleiflex but, except its lower portability, I find the Mamiya equal and sometimes better on many aspects. Its main advantage being, like Golgoth 69, the possibility to use a wide range of lenses while Rolleiflex are equipped with fix lenses. I’m a big fan of 80mm for portrait but would use a 50mm for street and architectural shots. When I go out image hunting I never really know whether I’ll be shooting one or the other. Being able to carry and switch between both focal allows me to shoot all that I want and avoid the frustration of not carrying the right lens for this shot or that one. The C330 is bulky but I have big hands and they seem to have found the perfect way to hold and carry it during my numerous photography trips. I have spent so many hours with this camera it feels like it is a part of me, and this is what a photographer should be looking for with his gear: to feel so comfortable with it they feel as one, the machine and the man, the mechanism, springs and shutter leaves, and the human eye.
• MAMIYA RB67 “Here’s Johnny!”: named after the famous quote from The Shining movie “Here’s Johnny!” This beast of equipment brings fear to all. I of course patched a sticker of the iconic Jack Nicholson’s psychopathic face on it for the best dramatic effect. My father owned a Mamiya 645 that he had to let go during some dry times of unemployment, to provide to his family. I still remember the day he went home and had converted his favorite camera into a pile of cash. It seemed a lot and we started throwing all the bills in the air screaming “We’re rich!!”. Only at that time I didn’t know the sacrifice he had made. I since promised myself to own that camera camera back. After weeks of study I eventually decided to go for the RB67 rather than the 645 though. But that Mamiya is still the symbol of a passion transmitted from a father to his son and that, in the case of my family, goes back way longer in the past… Technically there’s not much to say that has haven’t been said already about the RB, aka “The King of Portraits”. It does the job, ALWAYS. Again, I have no problem carrying it around but I understand people of smaller constitution might not enjoy carrying its weight and handling such a big cubic piece of photography. I like it. It trains my biceps too. What’s funny is that I’m almost exclusively using a 645 back on it instead of the bigger negative 6×7 back. Firstly, 645 back allows you 4 to 5 more shots per roll. Secondly, I love the 645 ratio, especially for architectural shots. That’s how I shot most frames of my on-going landmark series “Verticals”.
• OLYMPUS mju 1 “Mini Me”: I very recently spent the price of a meal for two on my first ever 35mm camera, and it had to be a point and shoot. I needed something I can carry with me at all times, always in my pocket. Being able to shoot 36 frames from a roll instead of an average of 12 from most medium format cameras is great and I go for it when I’m not looking for art quality shots but more with a documentary mind at work. From home and to the gym, bringing the garbage to the trash downstairs, walking to the hair salon, shopping… it’s always with me.