© Guillaume Tomasi from the series 'A bloom in the eye of the storm'

Your recent series A bloom in the eye of the storm has been shortlisted on Urbanautica Annual Awards 2020. As it is an ongoing project can you tell about your motivations and how you're developing this new work?

Guillaume Tomasi (GL): This new project is a much more personal and intimate reflection than my previous work. My childhood is a period of my life that often appears in the foreground. Music, a place, a feeling: all these Madeleines de Proust reminds me of it and this has continued with the birth of my kids. As a child, I often had thoughts about my future. I still do but unfortunately, these thoughts are sometimes tinged with pessimism. This was one of the triggers for this project. I projected these thoughts onto the thoughts my children may (and could) have. The messages they absorb every morning are very violent: the health of the planet is bad and we continue to go straight into the wall. I wanted to think about these notions: how will they grow with this mantra in mind?

© Guillaume Tomasi from the series 'A bloom in the eye of the storm'

© Guillaume Tomasi from the series 'A bloom in the eye of the storm'

© Guillaume Tomasi from the series 'A bloom in the eye of the storm'

This project is based on several axes: I am interested in intimate moments where I photograph the environment in which they grow up. A world that I try, like any parent, to make harmonious, peaceful, caring ... And at the same time, our planet is gradually falling apart. I also want to show that the world is a fabulous playground for them and that my responsibility as a father is to erect a shelter from the dangers they might encounter in their lives. Unfortunately, the looming threat is far too great. It is this tension that I wish to develop throughout the project.

Where are the photos taken? How important is for you to find a sense of place. How would you describe these places...

GL: Like Chrysalises, the photographs were taken in many different places: Australia, France, and Canada. The place is not a major element in my work. I don't want anyone to recognize a place as such. I am mostly interested in what I find in it and what it can bring as a meaning in my sequence. I have very few open landscapes at the moment so it makes it easier for me to hide the recognizable aspect of these landscapes. It allows me to focus the action around my family, to have a more immersive view of the environment around us. The places I included in the project highlight the softness of the small details of our world, through peaceful scenes, sometimes tinged with melancholy. I contrast them with more frontal scenes that show the fierceness of our impact and the evolving force of nature.

© Guillaume Tomasi from the series 'A bloom in the eye of the storm'

A childhood that runs fast, photography as an opportunity to reflect on time. Family memories. Is there a boundary between intimacy and project? Tell us about your creative posture and this fragile harmony...

GL: There is always a boundary of intimacy, because I choose what I want to include. I keep a certain reserve, I don't want to go into a documentary vision of my family. However, it is up to me to find the limit in the production of honest and sincere photos, without playing on stereotypes. To keep a vision that reflects us without giving ourselves away completely. I want to leave room for the viewer to be able to relate to these family scenes.

It's difficult to photograph your family. To have the right distance, how my relatives react to this technological intruder and finally where do I stand in this?

The harmony I talk about in the project description can be defined in many ways. In my role as a photographer, it is to keep a certain sincerity and kindness in the way I photograph my family. It is also defined by the life that my wife and I have built over the years. This harmonious life is fragile because nothing is taken for granted and this is true for everyone. Our time tends to weaken this lifestyle because the ecological danger which is in front of us, seems for the moment unstoppable...

© Guillaume Tomasi from the series 'A bloom in the eye of the storm'

© Guillaume Tomasi from the series 'A bloom in the eye of the storm'

© Guillaume Tomasi from the series 'A bloom in the eye of the storm'

Nature as an indispensable shelter. An immutable background, which modern man has violated. The father's responsibility not to completely hide the tragedies from future generations. Between awareness and desire to seek beauty...

GL: Yes, I agree. Nature is very present in this work, but that is normal. It is the origin of everything and will still be there after us, no matter what form it takes. It is a refuge for us to escape, refocus or realign. So why do we want to control it? Why have we forgotten it if it gives us so much happiness? And most importantly, does a million-year-old living entity need us to survive?

© Guillaume Tomasi from the series 'A bloom in the eye of the storm'

One of my roles as a father is to educate my children about the benefits of nature and to show them how to respect it. Our children are our last cards to play in this daily battle so it is up to us to give them as many ways as possible to deal with our mistakes. In the project, it is these moments of contemplation that illustrate this desire to sublimate the beauty of nature. To show what needs to be preserved.

I see an affinity with your previous release "Chrysalises". Yet there is an even more intimate atmosphere ... What did you search of different in this project?

GL: I just wanted to talk a little more about myself. This was not as much the case in Chrysalises. The starting point was an intimate anecdote and the personal intimacy gave way to the intimacy of anonymous people through their stories. I must admit that I regretted not having been able to give more of myself in Chrysalises, but it was not the right project to do that.

© Guillaume Tomasi from the series 'A bloom in the eye of the storm'

I see this project as a second chapter of a more global project. Not really a sequel, but a certain similarity in the themes approached through a different issue and point of view. This is the first time I've really focused a project on my family, and I notice that the timeframe worked in my favor because the pandemic kept us at home for several months. This allowed me to keep working because my subjects were close by.

The pandemic has somehow led us to relate differently and perhaps to reconsider what we call "home". What thoughts can you share with us?

GL: Of course, we all had to challenge ourselves. This change was so brutal that nobody was really prepared for this new life. It confirmed to me that what matters most is family and friends. 

© Guillaume Tomasi from the series 'A bloom in the eye of the storm'

What we call home remains for me rather vague. In France, we don't have a word as strong as in English and I think that this also plays on our perception of home. It is essential to have a roof over your head. Has the pandemic made me reconsider this notion? No. Not this pandemic. This latest sanitary crisis is just the beginning of a series of other crises that we will have to go through if we don't change anything. This issue worries me more than the pandemic and pushes me to already prepare myself for major changes in my life habits.

Well, I am quite pessimistic about this, I admit. I just hope that we will manage to review our priorities, rethink our ways, be more responsible and find the solidarity that we have been lacking for the past few years.

LINKS
Guillaume Tomasi (website)