Sophie Leleu

Musicians have great need of silence. For the music to burst forth, it needs space, breathing room. And my breathing room, my silence, is photography. I began to explore photography in the inspiring city that is London, while I was a student at the Guildhall School. A singer friend had asked me to take some headshots of her. She was so happy with them that she spread the word, and soon both musicians and actors began to take their place in front of my lens. One day, a colleague offered to pose nude for me. And so I discovered the indescribable joy of photographing the human body, of contemplating its beauty, of probing the human soul. I felt as though I was glimpsing the models of Botticceli, Ingres, Delatour, Klimt or Kokoshka. And so began a cycle of work on the human gaze that brought me a great deal and developed a humanist heart within me: in order to take good pictures of someone, it is necessary to love them.