Camille Vivier: Veronesi Rose

Central Saint Martins alum Camille Vivier’s career trajectory has been that of dreams: from winning a prize at the prestigious Hyères fashion festival a mere year after graduating in 1998 to being a key contributor to magazines like AnOther, Dazed & Confused, i-D and Numéro. Vivier tackles the competitive field of fashion photography but with an intellectual grounding by regularly referencing literature, cinema, art and mythology to subtly elevate her subject. Vivier’s will be the focus of the upcoming exhibition at 12Mail this month. Dazed Digital caught up with her to hear more about her process and love of 1970s Roman Noirs.

[My style is] classic at first sight but strange at the end. I'm mostly looking for things that I find meaningful and wonderful

Dazed Digital: How would you describe your photographic style?
Camille Vivier: Classic at first sight but strange at the end. I'm mostly looking for things that I find meaningful and wonderful.

DD: What is the most important aspect of your working process?
Camille Vivier: Finding subjects: people and places.

DD: Whose work inspires you and why?
Camille Vivier: Besides all the photographers that I love, I'm reading lots of 70s roman noirs by a French writer Jean-Patrick Manchette, I'm also listening to Ariel Pink's last album a lot. I've always been really inspired by Patrick Mauriès 'Second manifeste camp', which is soon republished by l'Editeur Singulier.

DD: What does it mean to you to have a solo show at 12Mail?
Camille Vivier: I'm showing only new personal things and it's been quite a while since I wanted to share them.

DD: What do you want people to take away from your photographs?
Camille Vivier: Emotions and a daydream full of oddities.

Camille Vivier, Veronesi Rose : 14th September to November 16th November, 12MAIL/ Red Bull Space, 12 Rue du Mail, 75002 Paris.