Pierrot Men on community and providing opportunities for the youth
In conversation with Luke Newbould
7th April, 2023
A household name in Madagascar, Pierrot Men is a generational artist who tells a lifelong story of identity. He opened a photographic studio in 1974 as a means of earning a living. Since, the photographer has developed an incredible catalogue of black-and-white documentary reportages and street images of Madagascar. Working within his community, and opening a conversation about the climate emergency in Madagascar, he owns the largest photo laboratory in Fianarantsoa, providing opportunities for the youth which he never had.
I am interested in your quote: “Each of my photos is a declaration of love for my country and its people”. Can you talk about your sensitivity when photographing the Southeast’s landscape and its inhabitants.
My photography doesn’t come from what I see, but from what I felt at the time of the shooting. That’s my feeling, my sensibility, my emotion. Once this feeling is understood, the love that I have for my country becomes more natural and visible through my photography.
Your photographic journal serves as a beautiful memory and insight to the reality of Madagascar and the Southeast. Did you understand the significance of your work from the outset or did this come later?
I take pictures for myself first, it is my passion before being my profession. It was way later, after my beginning as a photographer that I realised this work, done with so much emotion, was becoming important to me. Without recognising it at the time, my favourite subject is the human condition in all its facets. I never brought up Madagascar as a theme to talk about. Each photo is born from a spontaneous emotion that came without me looking for it. Over the years, I realised that I photographed almost all of Madagascar’s aspects and that I can now make a story.
I want young people to understand that the camera that they have every day in their hands may surprise them and give them the means to express themselves, to see the world differently.
Like many of the colleagues of my generation, I started with identity pictures, studio portraits, weddings, football games, anniversaries... everything that the customers were asking. I call that the ‘belly picture’ I took for money. I had to support my family. At the same time, I was also taking pictures for myself, for pleasure, to make my photography speak. It’s pure happiness. It became my passion, and I used it to tell the everyday story of life around me. It’s this photography that I try to transmit to the new generation of photographers.