Melchior Tersen Interview
After the creation of our Flickr Group, Melchior is another photographer whose photographs caught our eye; we decided to get in touch and find out what he gets up to in between eating KFC and strolling in the woods.
Keep reading to find out more, and don’t forget to join our Flickr…
Hey man, can your firstly introduce yourself; name, age, current location?
My name is Melchior, I have 24 years. I live in the Paris suburbs since my birth.
Your work seems to regularly feature the occult, and often conveys a dark vibe; what do you do you when you are not taking photographs?
My daily life is nothing morbid, I like to walk in the woods, going to the zoo, eat at KFC, going to concerts, going to galleries with my girlfriend, recently I started to paint and I bought a tattoo machine, but I failed to start.
What are your aspirations in life; photography and non photography related?
I am fascinated by the Internet and in particular by Tumblr is something fantastic, I do not inspire me, or directly from other photographers so rarely.
Some pictures make you want to go in a certain sense.I did not look premeditated with the photo, it just like that and I hate directing.Most of the time, I’ll say it, we’ll see.But if the inspiration was often very mundane things with a fern in a pot, a hair color, an incredible fruit, a strange situation … …
Do you have any photographic education, what is your educational background?
Who are main photographic influences, and what drove you to pick up a camera?
How do you currently pay the Bills?
I do not have income that comes from the photo. Not belong to any network, no one helps me or when I was offered very rarely and never the word compensation was used. To earn some money, I do jobs here and there, but this is extremely precarious. In the middle of an art director, or persons in place in the system of culture, if you say you work at night in a supermarket or on a site, we will despise you, so I avoid talking about it.
You seem to shoot a lot of dead animals; how do find them, and what do you do with them when you finish photographing them?
eat them? taxidermy?!
So when I go to the countryside and I can make a photo “dead animals”, I feel a bit like living in a fantasy “Goonies” or “Eerie Indiana”
Could you please explain what is happening in the series ‘Messe des animaux’?
The photos are not great, but I found the idea amusing. I would return this year.
Do you have any new projects, jobs or future plans that we should look out for?
I plan to get an online gallery and alongside a small publishing house.
I would love to do fashion or make album covers.
If you could mix both business and pleasure, what would be your ideal commission or commercial role as photographer?
have rarely been commissioned, I can not answer you ..
I would like to be able to say what I like without people coming from business school to give you orders.
Are there any photographers/musicians that we should be looking out for?
If you ask a band I’d say “CELESTE“, they are post hardcore dark, a great group, they put their album available for free and never play more than 5 euros, I love this punk mentality constructive .
For a photographer, I would say Maciek Pozoga, it’s a shame on his site there is almost more than the commercial work, but it has a multitude of pictures so much great.
Thanks for your time, do you have any last words?
Thank you for interview.
Feel free to go to my site and please send me an email and tell me what you think, good or bad, criticize it would help me…
Make sure to Check out Melchior’s Portfolio and give him some feedback.
Great work. Really enjoyed the Peta series also the typology of piles of foliage is pretty cool. Some quality images dotted throughout his online portfolio.