What is the philosophy behind your aesthetic?
It is actually pretty simple. I always look for a clean and straight to the point aesthetic. I’m always trying to stay away from busy backgrounds or unnecessary elements. I like to choose the colors and elements for the image beforehand.
You first became a photographer ten years ago, in 2009, and what was initially a hobby evolved into a passion. What has photography come to mean to you as a form of expression over those years?
At the beginning it was just a medium to have “nice” pictures, but as I was diving into it and watching different pictures and styles, I realized how much I loved it. I loved to see the expressions, the colors, and I could spend hours trying to create stories from the pictures I was seeing, so why not create my own stories? From that moment I took a different approach to how I create my images. As of today, photography is my “happy place,” where I can be myself and bring to life all those stories I have going around in my mind, turning possible the impossible and sharing my inside world with others.
Your work is so emotionally and visually captivating. How do you conceptualize it? Find inspiration? What about in the case of “Strange visitors” (top left and center)?
Thank you. My inspiration comes from different places, mainly emotions, reflections, and thoughts. In the case of “Strange visitors I and II,” my main idea came from my personal feelings and reflections and how we choose to deal with them, how our own feelings, ideas, and experiences can feel foreign or strange even to ourselves, and how we sometimes try to separate our reality from those feelings.
We love tracking the striking repeated color schemes in your photographs; green and red, for example, come alive in really unique ways in many of your images, including “The edge of the parallel world” (top right). What draws you to a color scheme? How do you see color influencing the message and emotions of your photographs?
I really like the balance between cool versus warm tones, stimulant versus calming colors. For me, red always adds that focal point of where to stop; red is an exciting color full of energy and power, while blues and greens add that point for the eyes to rest from the strong visual of reds. The color pallet and toning has a lot of impact on the final image. Just with colors we can add different meaning to a same element or create different moods.
What was your inspiration and process behind “The sacrifice stone”?
This is another picture which ideas came from personal experiences and deep reflections. I built the concept for the pictures starting from the idea of love and how, especially at the beginning, we blindly trust without been aware that maybe that deep and unconscious trust can lead us to an end we might regret.
What advice or assignment would you give to someone eager to explore portrait photography?
First you must believe in yourself and believe you are able to reach your goals. After that, practice, practice, practice. Never stop learning and exploring new ways to deliver your stories and ideas. Have a positive approach to new challenges and don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone.
Who are some of your favorite artists across genres–photographers, poets, musicians, or otherwise?
I love art in all forms, and I love to discover new artists from classics to contemporaries—definitely too many to tell them all, but here is an small selection of some of my favorites: Agatha Christie is hands down my favorite writer, I have all her books.
I love the way she describes everything, and how I can clearly see in my mind every scene of the book. When it comes to painters, my favorite is Zdzislaw Beksinski. I can spend hours watching his disturbing but yet beautiful paintings full of emotion that trigger my imagination with endless stories.
And lastly when it comes to photographers, I like classics, favorites like Gregory Crewdson with his amazing cinematic feel and detailed stories; but I also love contemporary artists like Flora Borsi or Brooke Shaden. Both of them are self-taught and both have created unique and very distinctive photography styles, becoming great examples for any artist.
Where can we find more of your work?
You can find me on Instagram where I try to upload frequently under the user name Faresmicuephotography. You can also find my work available to buy at Saatchiart.com/Fares Micue.
See more of Fares Micue’s artwork in Flock 22.
Gallery
Fares Micue is a self-taught fine art/conceptual photographer. She started photography as a hobby back in 2009. Slowly that hobby started to take more and more of her time until she realized that what started just as an entertainment was now her biggest passion. As a self-portrait photographer, she uses her own perception to create stories based of human natural feelings like fear, love, desire, or desperation. She uses a simple and clear aesthetic with a simplified color pallet, avoids busy backgrounds, and she also enjoys black and white photography.