Meet Ella Bats – an incredibly gifted French photographer based in Paris. She was a finalist of 36th edition of Hyères photography and fashion festival in 2021, where we had the opportunity to discover her talent through her stunning photo series “Adam and Adam”.
Ella has a very serious background in photography. She graduated in art and graphic design at ENSAAMA and also studied photography at Gobelins, the school of images. Ella Bats works predominantly in art, fashion and portrait photography incorporating the use of paint and material effects, explores the inner world of individuals and tries to find ways to visually project those worlds.
I think I always saw my grandfather with a camera in his hand and my father with a video camera. Very soon I wanted to see through the lens and observe the world with another prism. My first photo shoots started when I was a teenager, when I was travelling and also at home, when my friends came over. I would dress them up and photograph them.
Before entering the Gobelins school, I had a first look as an observer, but technically, I knew nothing about it. This photo school allowed me to amplify the technique, and various methods to develop my picture style.
There isn’t one photograph. There are photographs. Every area of photography is different. It is what you choose to do that remains important. For me, it allows me to see the world through different prisms. To make the invisible more visible. To show things that can’t be expressed in words. It’s about recreating worlds with elements of reality (like models, set design…). Or worlds that are more imaginary (special effects, digital painting…). All these mixtures create their own poetry of the image.
These are really photographs. The bodies were painted beforehand with make-up artist Sarah Wandee. This gives the image a painted aspect. Afterwards, I also use filters in front of my lens. And I repaint my images with software.
They are a couple of friends who have agreed to work on different forms of love. The use of color allows me to develop a code that speaks of the energies that love conveys. All these colors advocate a freedom of representation of gender, sex and class.
I don’t think you have to predict what effect you could have on the audience. But rather to do things because it is a desire, a need. I think that after the first lockdown due to covid, we needed to get carried away.
No, everyone must do what they want. On the other hand, I think it’s important to find things that inspire us if we want to go beyond photography.
I’m inspired by what surrounds me, encounters, travels, conversations, but also the human emotions that I perceive from others or that I experience myself. I am passionate about museums, galleries, contemporary dance, cinema, photography, painting, drawing, sculpture, music…
Believe in your dreams, get carried away and go for it!
I have two projects in progress at the moment. I’m developing the “Adam and Adam” series around synesthesia (the relationship between sound and color). For this, I’m working with a music composer who creates sounds from colored bodies.
And also another project around Phosphorescence. The energies that emanate from the human interior. What we don’t say with words, but which we transmit through the body.
