Pure and Personal: An Interview With Sophie van der Perre (NSFW)

Sophie van der Perre shoots friends and muses in spontaneous moments that give the viewer mixed feelings of nostalgia and freedom. Based in Amsterdam, the young Belgian photographer combines fashion and documentary photography in natural, seductive and extremely intimate portraits.

In this interview, she talks about what inspires her and how her perception of purity and youth are reflected in her work.

You call your work a combination of fashion and documentary, but you also tell stories with your pictures. How do you connect one objective to the other?

I guess I see it that way because the environment and clothes are very important in my photography, they contribute to the story I want to tell and share. I love working with real people, natural girls who are really beautiful, with lots of personality and charisma and have their own style. I want to tell their story, not make them someone they are not. Because of their own style it all looks very fashionable but it’s not the main thing in the photo, we’re not trying to sell the clothes. We’re showing a vision. Stylish location, their personality, the connection, it all contributes to the picture and the story.

Your personal work is stunning, and you are also successful with commissioned fashion photography. Do you follow the same approach in both? What drove you to start fashion photography?

It all started when my former agent sent me an email for a meeting at the agency. Before that I wasn’t really working with stylists or commercially, but just doing my own styling and my friends helped me with that. It took a while to translate my work into more commercial and also shooting digital, but now I really like both. I enjoy working with a team, where everyone has its own specialties and create something beautiful together, and at the end of the day I go home very satisfied.

Does your work for the agency still allow you to realize your personal visions?

Yes they really stimulate me to be myself, stay close to my style, what I want to express, in the continuation of my former work and ideas and help me visualize that.

How would you describe your development throughout the years?

A lot has changed. I used to take pictures in a more diary kind of way. When moving into working also commercially I learned to work with models I don’t always know personally, I try to always find a good connection with them and find a way to succeed our mission together and that needs a certain trust within the whole team involved. I still also make time to do artwork, which is a personal mission I feel a special drive for.

Why do you focus on portraiture in your personal work?

It is something I do naturally; I’m inspired by human nature, an emotion, to show the pure personality of someone. Even if it is sad.

Through your pictures, you try to evoke the feelings of purity, nostalgia and freedom. Do these emotions also play a major role in your private life? How do you try to realize them through photography?

Yes they definitely stand as well for me as a person; I love my freedom and feel like a butterfly. I love nature, trees, beautiful flowers that grow, water that flows and my friends are all very special and charismatic people. I feel very blessed to be surrounded by them. With their own styles and strong personalities, which gives me lot of inspiration. I try to find that as well in the models I book. It’s intensive and not easy, you have to look very closely, search their Facebook, Instagram, look at their connection with their friends and look for little things that make the difference. I also try to find out how they move, what they express.

Pictures from your selection show women in their own world, far from the eyes of men, far from the society’s suffocating expectations. You show us the world of women in their most natural environment, letting go of control. Careless is what you call that feeling. How did you get the idea of shooting those kind of pictures? How do you approach the shoots and how do you achieve such natural atmospheres?

I’m attracted to shooting girls who live their lives to the fullest, who go on adventures, who are creative and maybe at first sight not sexy, but who with their charisma make the mind of men go crazy. But also the mind of women, you want to be that girl who lives so carelessly and free. It all goes very naturally, we go to places where we find our freedom and connect and then just start shooting. It’s important with my personal work to not over think too much, cause the energy and flow have to be the most important elements in the photo. Otherwise it gets posed and less appealing.

You seem to be attracted by nostalgic sadness. In what way do beautiful tragedies find their way into your photography?

It just happens, it is not on purpose. As I try to capture true emotions, nostalgic sadness is one of them. I don’t necessarily look for them, these expressions come my way and I try to capture them.

Do the women you shoot in your personal work have something in common? What is the essence of womanhood represented in your pictures?

Strong, independent women, who are all a bit crazy or special, in a good way. Enjoying life and taking it as it comes.

Those women are explorers; they sparkle with the spirit of fresh beauty, love and adventures. They are young. What is the essence of youth? What fascinates you about it?

All the possibilities it gives, enjoying life at the fullest while being young! Still free of too many obligations, believing in the goodness of mankind, enjoying their own beauty without being conscious of the power of it; those years that are so precious before responsibilities hit you and sadness in life occurs.

Do you only look back or do your pictures also tell us something about the future?

It is clearly a combination of both elements. The past carries us into the future; with my muses I have seen an evolution. So when looking to my pictures of them in the past created a different feeling than what they evoke today. It was first very young and innocent now they are more mature and a different kind of beauty; however I will continue to search for these very young girls with their own special expressions.

What do your photos tell us about Sophie van der Perre? How do your very own experiences and feelings influence your work?

`When I started photography, I did it in a diary kind of way, I took my camera everywhere. I took pictures of my friends, myself, my travels. It is my life, it’s very personal. It tells you a lot but it also tells you nothing at all. It leaves a lot of room for interpretation. I guess I take pics of the worlds I live in and worlds I want to live in. It exposes a view into my world and that of my direct environment.

What are you searching for when you are taking pictures? How do you find the right moments that you want to shoot?

I don’t think too much but follow my intuition, when lovely moments come I try to be ready and capture them immediately. Sometimes it doesn’t come and I try not to panic about that. Most of the time it does come and then I feel that special connection with the people I work with, the models, the stylists, the clients, it really gives a good feeling to all and the pictures will always remind us of that special day we passed together. I must say the preparation for the shoot are almost as important as the day of the shooting.

Do you also find inspiration from other creative fields?

I really enjoy classic ballet, something I discovered recently. Love the movement, the music and how it makes me feel. Dreamy and dramatic. I love going to concerts and still enjoy dancing the night away with my friends.

Are you especially fond of any photographer? Who inspires you?

Sofia Coppola, Marc Borthwick, Corinne Day, Josh Olins, Alasdair McLellan and many others..

Modern DSLR cameras and Photoshop made it possible for photos to show more than the human eye can see. They extend reality. How do you feel about the technical development in photography? What makes analog photography so appealing?

Actually that scares me so much! You don’t know what’s real and it’s very interesting that you have to ask that question to every photograph you see. I love the grain in analogue, I love the mistakes, love that it can be blurry and it tells more of a story, the colors are so much better as well. So beautiful and again nostalgic. With digital there is always so much you have to do after you took the photo. Its the first layer but so much is happening in post production it’s crazy.

Where is your path leading? Do you have exhibitions coming up? Any ongoing book projects? What would you like to learn or to try next?

Your questions make me reflect and I come to the conclusion that I am very lucky that many very interesting things naturally come my way. I’m very open
to the future and take the days as they come. I’m shooting for brands and will see my work very soon on bags and in the shops and I think it’s very exciting. Also I have a very nice exhibition coming up on the 22nd of May in the Melkweg Gallery in Amsterdam. I’m showing my work along with my talented friend Duran Lantink and some others photographers which is definitely interesting to go and see. The work I’m exhibiting is about my recent trip with my muses Milou, Sarah and Bamboo. We went to the countryside in Berlin and took loads of pictures. This is part of an ongoing series I do with them every year; we want to make a book of it in the near future. Really looking forward to our next trip. I also just changed agency and I’m now represented by 100% Halal, which is a lovely warm kind of family environment and I’m honored to be included.

Learn more about Sophie van der Perre and her work on her website, Instagram and flickr accounts.

written by bgaluppo on 2015-06-04 #people #lifestyle #analog #interview #analogue #portrait #natural #youth #analog-photography #sophie-van-der-perre