What’s driving Mr Dazy?
Double exposures used to be a function of forgetting whether the lm was wound on, but for Louis Dazy they are a means of adding depth of meaning, time and expression,
The story we can tell within a single exposure does not have to be restricted to that period of time during which the shutter was open. If we take a picture at 4pm exactly, the story represented in that frame does not have to start at 4pm and end at 1/60sec past the hour. With care and consideration for what we include in the composition we can make our picture sum up the events of perhaps an hour or even a whole day. There’s no denying of course that it’s a tricky job to compress a few hours into a fraction of a second, and we don’t always manage it as well as we’d like.
It is easier to represent a longer period of time by showing a series of images. That way we can mix the broad view with close-up details so when exhibited together, and consumed as a single body, they can work together to form an account with more twists, turns and intricate features. A movie does this especially well – presenting us images at a rate of 24 per second that feed our imagination as we develop an idea of what is going on in the scene. With a panning camera we can also collect information about the whole
environment while appreciating a sense of the time over which the sequence spans.
Operating somewhere in that area between the still image and a movie is French photographer Louis Dazy, who specialises in producing images that represent an atmosphere, a feeling and an extended sense of time by showing us two moments simultaneously. Double exposures are nothing new, of course, but the way Louis uses them is particularly striking and emotive.
Modern digital cameras make creating double exposures very straightforward, but Louis isn’t one for the easier, softer way. He prefers to shoot on film and to make his double exposures in-camera, often using multiple cameras and recording where the subject is on each frame so he can accurately align the second exposure later. As you can see though, the effort pays off. His pictures are stunning.
Accidents happen
Like all good film photographers, Louis discovered multiple exposures by accident. Shooting a friend’s band in his early days of photography he accidentally pressed the wind-on crank release on the base of his Nikon F2. When he pulled the winder over for the next shot the film remained where it was and he exposed a second image over the first. Fortunately he liked the effects the result produced and from then tried to make a double exposure on every roll he shot – until it became almost all he did.
‘A double exposure involves taking two moments and putting them together to show as one,’ Louis explains. ‘That’s what attracted me at the start. I can tell two different stories at the same time, which gives me a sort of cinematic way to express what is in my head. The viewer gets to see the portrait first and then they can dive into the second exposure to pick up the environment and the mood. Pictures that are shot in this way hold my attention for much longer than a single frame ever can.’
Doubling up
‘I don’t have much technique in my photography so all of
what you see is from ambient light – I don’t take lights on a shoot. I look out for coloured lights in the street and in shops that I can use. There’s not much planning either. I just take a friend, a few beers and walk around for a while. If I find some nice light we stop to see what we can get.’
Louis likes to create his double exposures in-camera which requires first shooting the portrait and then shooting a second frame of the environment directly on top of it. Sometimes he can find the second shot straight away in the same location, but when he can’t he uses up to six cameras to take six portrait shots of his subject and makes notes about what is in the frame. Then he heads off to find environmental shots that he can record over the originals. It all sounds very complicated, but he has a simple system to make sure things work out well. ‘I try to keep the main portrait subject in the middle of the frame so I always know where it will be when I’m framing up the second exposures. This way I can make sure the elements in the second shot allow the portrait to show through clearly, or so they interact with the portrait in an interesting way. I also have a folder of single frames on my computer that I sometimes use to match up with other single frames to create new double exposures, but these make up a very small percentage of my work.’
Louis has been extremely successful with his double exposure personal work and has a gigantic following on social media. His style and creativity attracts commercial clients and gets him paid projects. ‘Whether I’m shooting personal pictures or commercial work I operate in the same style. With personal work the moments come naturally but in commercial work obviously I have to recreate those moments. I still want to explore my individual style, so won’t shoot the way everyone else is just to make money. I need to be proud of the photos I shoot. Commercial work is also shot digitally as you need more of a margin for error, but most of my personal work is on film – though I also shoot digitally when I’m broke.
‘Clients don’t usually want double exposures for their advertising as they are a bit too arty for selling a brand, but they like the style so come to me for that. I do manage to
make a living from photography, and can make money by selling the rights to pictures I’ve already taken, which is great as you just send the file and get paid. I also sell prints.
‘I made a book of my pictures that I published and sold myself which has worked out well. I found it was much better than going with a publisher as you only get a tiny fraction of the sale price that way. The worst bit was storing all the books in my apartment and having to post them all!’
Despite his large following and the fact that he earns his living from photography, Louis says he doesn’t feel like a photographer. ‘I’m just creating memories,’ he says. ‘I started photography just to have pictures I could look back on of places I was in and people I knew, and I’m still trying to do that – making pictures for when I’m old. When I go back to old photos I feel the same thing I felt at the time. Pictures unlock memories in the same way that smell can – and without these reminders you can’t always conjure those memories from the back of your head. Photos bring those feelings back and make me feel like I’m in the same moment.’
The trappings of success
Louis has come to a point where he wants to move on from working in double exposures, but as he has become very well known for them he is finding it a challenge to change direction. His social media followers expect his pictures to be double exposures, and no matter how good his single-exposure pictures are they vote with the ‘Like’ button and almost demand more of what they came to him for. Rather than him defining his own style, double exposures have come to define him as a photographer and it is all that interviewers want to ask about.
‘I’m now trying not to shoot double exposures as I feel like I’m getting stuck. I don’t feel like I know everything about the technique or that I’ve done it all, but I know how it works now and feel I want to do something else. People expect me to shoot double exposures though so I know when I don’t give them what they expect, unless it is something really awesome, my stats go down.
‘I’m still grateful that people like my double-exposure work, but I’m becoming bored shooting it. It’s a weird feeling. I have to ask
myself, “Am I doing this for myself or everyone else?” It has to be for myself. I don’t want to get lost in the process of being successful, so I need to focus on what I want to do rather than listening to the voices around me. You can become lazy when you feel like you’ve out-done yourself and everything is great – but then you stop doing what you do for the reasons you started doing it. When you shoot pictures to please other people you are giving away some of your personal time – you may as well be at work!
‘I’ve been doing double exposures for four or five years now. After a while you get to know what people like so you shoot that way because it’s easy and you know it’s going to work. That can make photography boring as there’s no experimentation – you already know what the picture is going to look like. There’s nothing real about the process. Even if it does really well on social media you get a bitter-sweet feeling as other people like the picture but it doesn’t mean very much to me.’
Louis hasn’t decided yet on a direction for his future personal work, but he is keeping an open mind while he thinks about it. ‘I’m still searching. I used to be scared about moving away from shooting double exposures, but now it feels refreshing. It’s a new approach and I’m finding it really exciting. I’m aiming for the same thing I was when I started taking pictures; making memories and feeling satisfied with what I’m doing – even if it’s just for me. Liking my own pictures should be enough for me. My pictures need to be in sync with how I feel, and I should be proud of them. I have been taking pictures for other people for too long.
‘I don’t know if I’ll abandon double exposures entirely, as it was my first love, so I will probably still shoot them when I see the potential, but it won’t be the main part of my work. I won’t be able to capture that same sense of time in a single frame, and I have no idea really what I will do next other than trying to capture the way I feel. It’s really hard to remap my brain to see things differently as I have got used to seeing that way.’
‘Over the past few months I’ve been trying to move on, but we’ll see how that goes as we move through 2021. I’m stepping up my game, and having a change of direction – seeing things differently but still focusing on the right thing. We all need to focus on what we feel.’
Kit, settings and lm
Louis uses a Nikon F2 for most of his film work, and a Sony A6300 when he is shooting digitally. ‘I’d love a Nikon F6, but they are quite expensive. I also want a Hasselblad 500 – I don’t need it, and I’m not into cameras, but I think it will make me shoot in a different way. At the moment though I shoot almost everything with the F2 and a Nikkor 35mm f/2 lens, but sometimes use a 28mm or a 50mm. The 35mm has a view that’s similar to the way I see.
‘You can be really close to the subject with a 35mm lens, which creates a different vibe and allows you to feel their energy. Pictures shot with 85mm and long lenses don’t make me feel things in the same way – it’s like the people are just standing there. Most of the time I shoot wide open as almost all my work is shot at night; the middle of the day isn’t really my thing. And I shoot handheld. I experimented a lot when I started and now use the same settings all the time. I shoot at 1/30sec or 1/15sec because I have pretty steady hands.
‘I used Kodak Ekta 100 pushed to 400 when I started, but now I use Kodak Portra 400 colour negative film most often. I didn’t think I would like Lomography film as usually it has really strong colours, but Lomofilm 400 works well at night. Portra 400 is kind of warm and is really close to the way I see. CineStill film is too blue and I don’t like the halation. I also tried Fujifilm Velvia 50 slide film and liked the results, but it’s expensive, you have to wait longer to get it developed and I need
to use a tripod. Slide film has less grain too and grain is a big part of my pictures, so I prefer negative film. When I’m working digitally usually I add a bit of grain to the images to get the shot-on-film-look.
‘I always get my negatives scanned at a commercial lab, as when travelling I only want to take my camera, some film and my laptop. A scanner would be a step too far.’
Advice to new lm photographers
‘Shooting with film isn’t as hard as you might think it is. I started off not knowing anything about photography. Just get to know the camera really well, and the basics of making an exposure. Practise a lot and once you know how to expose a photo you can then just focus on what you feel is right, what you want to shoot and being creative. Don’t let anyone tell you that your work is rubbish – just keep shooting and enjoy it. If you like what you are doing that’s enough. You don’t need a purpose for what you do. I just make memories.’