Spotlight: Pierre Toussaint
We recently had the pleasure to catch up with Australian-based photographer and director Pierre Toussaint. We talk breakthroughs in the industry, where he got started and what photographers inspired him over the years. Pierre has worked with the likes of Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, Chanel, Versace, Nike, Tommy Hilfiger and captured some of the world’s most well-known faces.
1. Can you tell us how you got into photography?
I studied art history at uni then did some post graduate film and cinema and at that time took a couple of photography units to learn some technical stuff. I wasn’t really into shooting fashion or people at all really... more observational stuff. Which is still what most of my personal work is I guess.
2. How did your style come about?
I started in the 90s and have always loved a pretty raw and understated aesthetic... and it has developed from there. I did a lot of studio to start with and then discovered 35mm point and shoot (kind of the wrong way around) and I loved how simple it made everything. Even today no matter how big the jobs are that I do, I still essentially shoot very simply.
3) Do you have a favourite project that you’ve worked on?
I had an exhibition in Tokyo last year which was really satisfying.. imagery associated with space craft, and meteorites, archival Nasa imagery etc. In terms of jobs, I am lucky to have worked with a few big people.. Jerry Lorenzo from Fear of God is always a favourite.. we shot a job in Milan right before this whole Coronavirus blew up.. (like right before) and then a couple of weeks ago I shot a Nike campaign with him over Zoom in LA.. I did a Versace campaign last year which was pretty cool to be involved in as well.
4) What was your first major breakthrough in the industry?
When I was so studying I worked in retail and a guy I worked with was a model and asked me to shoot some pictures for him. His agent at the time, Des Eddy, called me up afterwards and got me to test some other models and got me a couple of jobs. I really had no idea what I was doing for at least a year or two. I would feel sick the night before almost every shoot.
5) What photographers have inspired you the most over the years?
Juergen Teller, Wolfgang Tilmans, Nigel Shafran, Takashi Homma, Alin Huma.
6) If you had an open brief, an endless budget and could shoot anyone or anything, what would you do?
I think I’d shoot a campaign of someone super famous doing something super normal.. I love paparazzi imagery of celebrites doing very normal, every day things.. like grocery shopping or walking down the street. I don’t think I answered that very well though.. maybe an ad job in Caribbean, 2 shots a day over a couple of weeks… that’s probably the sensible answer.
