Safaris
"The photo is a chance to be in the right place at the right time, well-aligned like the planets. So, if you're not an astronomer, rather than waiting for eclipses, you can patiently look for situations, go on trips, and try to reproduce the oddities and moments that you have imagined.”
A biologist by day, Chapelle escapes from the scientific setting in his spare time to capture the imaginary, the fantastical, the ambiguous - and sometimes even the real. He chooses photography for its elusive, fixed character, tracking down the stolen image for a taste of the game and the magic of the moment.
Between travel and fashion series, he gives life to phrases, scenarios, and stories: "Mathilde Gets her Head out of the Hole,” "Casting Scam,” "Turnaround,” "Mother I Will No Longer Pose Naked (On the Fountain of the 4 Dolphins).” Artificial lighting, photomontages, staging - at the age of 35 Olivier Chapelle makes use of all kinds of artifice to give substance to his desires and fantasies. In an offbeat set design, the characters capture the light and play with the themes and aesthetics of high fashion; Olivier Chapelle sublimates fashion and beauty with a touch of erotic humour and precision of detail, which give his work both rigor and fantasy..
