Victoire Avril trained as an architect and only started taking photographs when she moved to Tokyo.
Her first job there was to take photographs of a Japanese Blythe doll, which made for some pretty creepy imagery. Victoire’s work is characterised by accents of colour in the midst of a faded world. She chooses pastels and faded colours because she likes her photographs to convey the feel and softness of a watercolour. Her manipulation of colour highlights complimentary paired hues that form and sculpt the photograph’s composition and this is a conscious decision:
‘I would love people to look at my pictures as abstract paintings, I put emphasis more on the way the shapes and colours work together than the subject.’
Victoire is part of the culture of photographers who are taking mundane subjects and making them into something beautiful. These everyday objects form her dreamscape. The subjects she photographs are not just everyday objects, however, she also has a muse called Vitesse who inspires much of what she does. Vitesse is her cat. Nor does Victoire limit herself just to taking photographs. She often makes the clothes that her models wear, and wants to turn this area of her work into a venture of its own. Installations, embroidery and bag making also are on the roll call to satisfy her insatiable appetite for creativity.
Projects for the future include a publication, expanding her fashion photography and an exhibition of her Island photos, but really she just wants to keep making and doing.
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