If you've come across this blog, you might wonder what it really is High Sensitivity Portrait. A portrait photography studio? A social project? Well-being? It's a little of the three at a time. And to understand why, it is necessary to go back along my own path, made detours which, with hindsight, draw a fairly clear trajectory.
From one job to another, a red thread I didn't see yet
I was in a very different profession before I got there: manager of artists in music, salesman in store, photography trainer, marketing project manager, guide of gastronomic tours in Lyon, technician on film shoots. Seen from the outside, it looks like a succession of reconversions without obvious connection. Seen from the inside, it's something else: every time, what kept me in these trades was the time I was facing someone. — an artist, a client, a trainee, a visitor — and that I had to create the conditions for him to feel comfortable, understood, enhanced.
The portrait photograph ended up imposing itself as the meeting point of all this. It's a technical exercise, of course, but it's mostly a very concentrated human relationship: a few dozen minutes during which someone agrees to show up to you, with what it entails of vulnerability. I quickly realized that this moment was more interesting than the technique itself.
The encounter between photography and psychology
In parallel with this photographic practice, I began to attend psychology classes at the university as a free listener. Not to change one more job, but because I wanted to understand more seriously what is really happening when a person looks at himself. — or avoid looking at each other. Why some people no longer have a single picture of themselves in years. Why a photo can do good, and why it can also hurt.
This intersection between photographic practice and psychological understanding has become the foundation of High Sensitivity Portrait. The idea is not to offer photo therapy — I'm not a psychologist and I don't pretend to be — but to design sessions that take into account what we know about the relationship to self-image, rather than applying a classic studio recipe to everyone.
Why black and white, and why the portrait
Black and white removes part of the quick judgment: more complexion to evaluate, more clothes to comment on, more decor to situate socially. It remains essential — an expression, a posture, a look — and it is precisely this essential that interests High Sensitivity Portrait. Black and white simplifies the image to make it more complex.
As for the portrait itself, it is the most direct format to work on the issue of looking at oneself. Unlike a wedding, travel or event photo, the portrait has nothing to tell other than the person himself. It's also what makes him intimidating — And that's why the way you conduct a session counts as much as the equipment used.
Three publics, one mission
Portrait High Sensitivity addresses three audiences, with a different functioning for each:
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Individuals, which come for a paid session, often at the time of a change, reconstruction, or simply with the desire to look at each other differently.
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Enterprises, which offer sessions to their employees in an approach of well-being at work, outside, without studio to be installed in the premises.
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Associations, for whom the sessions are free: the aim is to put this practice at the service of the people they accompany, when photography can become an additional tool in their work.
These three components are not three separate activities: paid sessions (individuals and businesses) partially fund free sessions offered to associations. It is an assumed economic model, which I will detail in a future article.
Associations at the heart of the project
It is probably the most important part of High Sensitivity Portrait. I have identified several associations whose action directly overlaps the themes that matter: ATD Fourth World for the fight against precariousness, Les Petits Frères des Pauvres for the accompaniment of isolated elderly people, Le Refuge pour le soutien aux jeunes LGBT+s repudiées ou en différence, Habitat et Humanisme pour l'inclusion par le logement. In each of these contexts, isolation and degraded self-image return as central issues — And that's exactly where I think that a well conducted photo shoot can bring something concrete.
What you will find on this blog
In the coming weeks, this space will host articles on the link between photography and self-esteem, on topics raised by partner associations, on well-being at work in companies, and behind the scenes of the project. — How a session goes, how it all finances, what works and what remains to be built. The goal is simple: that this blog serve those who are considering a session as well as those who are more interested in the link between image and well-being.
If this approach talks to you, you can follow the progress of the Instagram project @portrait.high.sensitivity, or find all the information on portraithighsensitivity.fr.
