Guillaume Amorin

A brief history

Although a French national, Guillaume was born in Babd-el-Oued, Algeria to Uruguayan parents. Over the following decade and a half, his childhood education continued in Portugal, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy and finally Belgium where at the age of 18 he attended Art Academy. His desire to draw and paint started from an early age beginning with a fascination with colour. A particular habit was to squeeze out colours that pleased him, onto his palette, before deciding the subject of his work. This began a life long fascination with colour broadening in time to encompass light and contrast as important elements of his future work.

Leaving formal education behind, Guillaume spent 3 years as a security guard, on the night shift. This allowed him, in somewhat less formal surroundings, to continue his education by reading copious amounts of books, drawing and nurturing ideas of writing a film script. He was also now able to purchase his first camera, starting his life long interest in photography. Over time his interest in drawing and painting waned as his desire to experiment with photography grew. Mastering the darkroom didn’t take long and soon photographs were covering every surface of his home.

In 1997, needing the peace and quiet of the French countryside, Guillaume moved to a small village in rural southern Dordogne, to begin the arduous task of writing his epic film score, which to date, has not been published. Abandoning the darkroom in 2005, he bought his first digital camera, a Nikon D70; an easy choice as he already owned a sizeable collection of lens used on his conventional film Nikon SLR. Without the restriction of developing costs, images can now be taken with total freedom; hence a sizeable library is now taking shape. His interest in writing continues today in the form of short stories, a collection of which is currently waiting to be published.

Influences

If a title had to be applied to Guillaume’s work as a photographer, it would be ‘Beauty’. That is, ‘beauty’ with respect to colour, light and contrast influenced by the 4 elements of life – air, water, fire and earth. The physical form in which it takes is secondary, a vessel merely to present colour, light and contrast. Density also plays a major role allowing parameters to play in counterpoint with one another. Colour, light and contrast won’t always be present in equal measures but, one is always a dominating feature, although not always in an obvious manner. Images can, and frequently do, take on an abstract quality, seemingly detached or unrelated to any obvious object as a whole (Example Guillaume – does the leaf form part of a tree, forest floor, compost heap etc.). Guillaume sees an image gaining life once a specific intensity of light, contrast and/or colour has been established. However, of all the influences discussed, colour stands out as the most important element of Guillaume’s photography. Nothing is permitted to alter or influence its presence, space and structure is created allowing colour to justify its own existence

Future

As the possibilities of exploring light, colour and contrast are endless, Guillaume intends to continue photographing France and exploring its many beauties. After the publication of the first book of short stories, another is planned hopefully to be released early in 2008. The ultimate goal for Guillaume though, is to realise the fruition of his script into a film, a passion that has occupied him for the past 10 years.