Incubus’ Choice: Close-up on Jacques D-S

What message(s) do you want to express through your work?

I do not have the pretence to express a message, I just want to show that the body of a woman or a man of any age can be beautiful.

Which artists inspire you? Who are your masters?

I cannot really say that one or many artists inspire me, I flicker through the photography sites, and my preference goes to the photographers who use light as only dress for the bodies. Apart maybe for Toby, in my last gallery, which is inspired by Francis Bacon. My first shot are from the seventies. I was working with films, with all the implied constraints, shooting, developing and printing in darkroom. Many hours were needed to get a photo. I went back to photography once retired, in 2006, and this time in digital.

What have you gained by being on the internet?

I was frustrated to not being able to show my work and share my pleasure. I have finally opened my first website on bookfoto in May 2007 (j-d-s.bookfoto.com), and my last site (jacques-d-s.com), launched in March 2008 already reached more than 6,000 visitors in 4 months, which is surprising to me.

Did the internet enable you to meet new models, to find new exhibit places?

This is through ads on a naturist website (etre-naturiste.com) that models propose to pose for me. Now, models contact me from my last site. I have not dared yet to make an exhibition. For one thing, in province, people are not very open-minded toward that type of photos. If female nude is accepted, male nude is still taboo, hence it’s hard to find a place to exhibit those photos.

Has your work ever been censored? If so, how did you deal with it?

Yes, my first site, bookfoto, has been suspended many times under the pretext of showing erotic nudes. I complained, and removed the so-called erotic photos, which were of relaxed sexes. It has motivated me to find a site where I would not be censored, namely the website waibe.fr which webmaster is listening to our computer problems and makes his site evolve according to our desires.

What projects mean a lot to you at the moment?

My projects have not changed, to pleasure in what I do and to give satisfaction to the models who are often rejected. Models who are often looking, by the fact of being looked at close range, with no tact, for a therapeutic, a psychologic mean to accept their body. I would like to do female nude, but all the ads I publish are not replied to. This is true that I do not pay, and the access of my work place is not very easy. Which strenghtens the motivation of the models.

Could you tell us a few words about the place you live/work in?

I am lucky, after 45 years of work, to have a very comfy place to live in, in a small village, with a garden and an indoor swimming-pool that we glimpse in the photo galleries, which enable me to accomodate my models and to spend a friendly day together.

Close-up on…