Author: Arnaud De Grave

Arnaud De Grave (a.k.a. mostly Hern42) came rather late to photography, like everything he does nowadays. Before that he was busy being good at school, or rather he was not enough of a rebel not to be... But the times, they are a-changing, as one says. He became interested in photography because he was not good enough in skateboarding, starting both around 2000 at the age of 25, which is, he knows, rather very late. So that kills the usual myth of having been given an ancient camera by one's father at age five and never looking back again. However he was indeed offered his first "real" camera by his father, albeit at a later time. Then started a long progression of travelling and shooting and collecting older and weirder cameras, buying more and more films and exposing them. Getting more and more addicted to producing images which would fit within whatever fancy he got inside his ever oh-so fastly (ghastly?) changing mood. He created many things in order to have more opportunities to perform photography: the French association BOP, the Copenhagen based group CCCP (which stood for "Color Climax Copenhagen Photographers"), etc. He prefers rather long projects based on travelling and social behaviour in the gonzo way (in reference to Hunter Thompson but without too much of the drug intake, not the Muppet Show...) "When you have to shoot, shoot, don't talk." - Tuco / The good, the bad and the ugly (1967)

The hunt for the dudes and dudettes…

2009/05/012015/02/03 Categories: Archives · Humanistic Views

A first of May in Kobenhavn… One camera, one film, one day… many beers and one sausage! The first of May is quite an institution in Copenhagen, this year it was sunny (after a couple of years of rainy firsts of May) and people poured in the streets and slowly (or not) converged toward Faelledparken to participate in whatever activities there were there: beer of course, sausage for sure, some music, lots of political discussions (mixed with lots of beer, I let you imagine…) and stuff. I went hunting for dudes and dudettes…

Every street has a story to tell…

2008/12/212013/07/27 Categories: Exhibitions · Experiments

This exhibition will hopefully tell that Asian streets have many stories to tell. The stories they tell might be true, they also might be pure fiction. There might not be any obvious story. I am but a chronicler, a mere scribe. Does one really care? Isn’t it as true as we like it to be? The streets are the roots of all evil, err, sorry, of all street-photography. Many shots were made at night (“It was a dark and stormy night…” of course), but many shots were also made during the day. Some in a rush, some just before running…

LabiChampi in Karosta, Latvia

2007/09/252015/02/03 Categories: Archives · ReportageLeave a comment

Imagine a bunch of artist-architects… Now imagine an old Russian navy base, turned into some sort of ghetto in Latvia… Now continue imagining these people taking care of modifying some destroyed buildings into an art centre… And to top that all, imagine an orthodox cathedral beaming in the evening light. I have to admit I got pretty excited by the surrounding there!!! For more informations about the project please visit the EXYZT website if you dare. They are an artistico-architectico collective, or something like that… And they are insane. That’s all I’m saying, and I certainly *do* respect that!!!