Antoine KHÔL
"Never believe the assholes who say ‘Everything has already been done’."
Final edit
Title: Untitled series about Plants, Fruits and Vegetables
Featured: Personal project
Outtakes
Q&A
Give us some background on this project.
The "Untitled" series is a long-term personal work, started in 2019, which features plants, fruits and vegetables.
Each photographed element is the subject of a long observation beforehand. In search of balance and harmony in all her visuals, khôl reveals plants to keep only the essential: the drawing of their structure through their silhouettes, transposed into two dimensions, most of the time.
The result is a refined and minimalist graphic style, halfway between figurative and abstraction, halfway also between the photographic medium and india ink drawing.
Antoine khôl started a new series on the female nude in 2023, taking the same minimalist graphic approach in black and beige.
Why was the final edit selected over the outtakes?
To show the subject in a different way.
Any anecdotal moments during this project that you'd be willing to share?
Some of the plants I've selected are on the side of the road, like grasses.
Everyone walked by them without paying attention.
But when you really look at them, and show them from a specific rendering or angle, they can be magnificent. It's happened several times, and it's always a great satisfaction.
Shed some light on how you got involved in this career.
A girl's face when I was in high school.
A beautiful face, with light blue eyes rimmed by a navy blue corolla. Porcelain skin.
I wanted to photograph her, I never could, but it sparkled a vocation.
Where do you draw your inspiration from?
Everywhere. Also, the subject as such is already a source of inspiration.
Describe the project that defined you as an established artist.
This one!
What’s it like being on set with you?
If someone was on set, she or he would have to be really patient. Sometimes a single image can take 1 or 2 days.
Do you prefer a large or small team on set?
All by myself for plants. One-on-one with a model.
Describe your ideal project.
Rediscover a common subject, show it from a new angle.
Express what your work means to you.
Being creative is always rewarding. So is sharing it.
What gear are you packing?
Quite simple: a softbox, a few tripods, a few sources to light the front. A glass table.
What factors influenced your artistic style?
Above all balance and harmony.
What would you like to be known for in the creative industry?
For the same reasons as the above question: balance and harmony, also offering totally new images, with an unique rendering.
Social media for artists… Give us your thoughts.
Social media is a great opportunity for artists to discover other work. But people absolutely must go beyond that, and never forget that screens standardize renderings, and that perception in real life is very often very different. Because an image is also a print, a choice of paper, often with a frame. No screen can restore the singularity of such an object, and certainly not with the way the image is consumed on these so-called << social >> networks.
Do you have any suggestions to budding artists?
Always keep your starting enthusiasm.
Try several ways, get inspired by others to find your way. Finding your way, your own signature, is the most important thing. In order to exist in a world that is already enough saturated with works of art.
Get the technical skills so you can better free yourself from them, and thus be able to express everything you want in the artistic plan.
Never believe the assholes who say "Everything has already been done". No, not everything has already been done, and if it has, everything needs to be done again, and better.
Never set limits for yourself. Anything is possible, most of the time. (with hard work and good ideas)
Explore different areas (lifestyle, portraits, landscapes, etc.). Each activity nourishes the others.
Educate yourself, go to exhibitions, read, meet kind people, meet mentors.
Try, fail, step back, start again.
Have fun in all these different activities.
Never believe the asshole who say "Everything has already been done" ..No, everything has not already been done, and if it has, everything needs to be done again and better.
Anything else you'd like to share about you or your work?
Later.
Why do you think it's important for outtakes to be featured?
This can be interesting, for educational purposes, always in the spirit of sharing. But some recipes must also remain secret.
What’s next for you?
Continue this series on plants, for as long as possible, research and explore this subject.
Also, take some nude pictures.
Take some portraits of a woman I met a few days ago in the netherlands, during a fair. I'm waiting for a reply.
Share a quote you live by.
"Where there is a will, there is a way."
How can people follow your work?