Youssef Chennoufi

The first time I touched a camera, I was 9 years old in Morocco. At the time, I was already having fun with the cameras bought by my parents to immortalize our family life. I still remember my loved ones handing me this little case to help them capture these moments of life. 

I remember that you had to take your time before triggering because the shots were limited in number. My parents only bought films for big occasions. I remember going to the photographer in the neighborhood to develop the film and there I discovered the magic of light, fragments of life, parties, weddings, engagements, births, smiles and joie de vivre. 

I remember that, in my family, photography has always been synonymous with encounters, rather in joy and good mood.  Photographs were never taken during a sad event: accident of life or death. I remember all those moments that marked me and that gave me a taste for this art through which everyone can express themselves and express their vision of the world. 

These are my first memories in photography. 

At the age of 23, I began to take an interest in photography in greater depth. At the age of 26, I started by taking classes and I joined a first photo-club in which I discovered individuals from different backgrounds sharing the same passion. I practiced photography according to my desires and my expectations: portraiture, events, street photography, photo reportage.

At the age of 28 I wanted to share this passion with the inhabitants of my city, neighbors, friends. So I created the Photo-Club of Puteaux which today brings together dozens of amateur photographers. My photographic practice has now evolved and led me to a new, more artistic exercise. In order to reflect on the world around me, in my own way with my sensibilities and my vision. 

Inspirations :    

My greatest inspiration is my job as a psychologist, a job in which I am confronted with many human interactions and multiple emotions and points of view. It is from there that I draw most of the time the emotions that I want to transmit through my creations. 

Other artists such as Gilbert Garcin, Teun Hocks, Magritte each endowed with a singular universe inspire me in their way of approaching a subject of society. My photographs mix symbols, surrealism and poetry. I build compositions from my photographs to tell a story that questions our human condition and our relationship to nature. My works evoke an impression of strangeness of reflection both visually and written.

In my works, I am my own model… I express a vision of the world seen from my own window.  The universe in which I evolve is entirely singular and created directly from my imagination and my own interpretation of reality. Writing is an integral part of my creative work. This approach allows me to deepen the reflection around my works.