Chapter 4. Studio 04: The workshop

Hristophe NoËl

This image was part of a project I did for an exhibit arranged by the Seine-Saint-Denis regional council on the theme of "Memories of the Industrial Age." It couldn't be just "a beautiful picture." It also had to embody a concept, a thought addressed to both the author and to the viewer. Thanks to digital retouching with Photoshop, everything is possible.

For this particular setting, I created multiple images of myself as a way of raising the question of identity in a world dominated by mass production, and how it has led us to prefer identical copies instead of unique objects—even when it comes to humans! I used a common workplace scene—in this case, a workshop—where each identical character is engrossed in his own inner world.

Hardware used

• Sinar 4 × 5 view camera

• Balloon light, without flash

• 4 × 5 Polaroid and Portra 160NC sheet film

• 500 MHz Power Mac G4 with 512 MB RAM

• Wacom graphic tablet

• Imacon virtual drum scanner

Software used

• Photoshop 7

Montage and digital retouching are an important part of my work, but only as an adjunct. I try to avoid letting them become the main subject, like one of those movies where special effects start to dominate the story.

For The Workshop, I wanted to produce a realistic pictorial rendering that, if cleverly done, might fool the viewer. It called for a warm, enclosed space, and a format like that of the great frescoes of the 18th century. I looked through many books, was appalled by the photographs of working children by Lewis Hine (1874–1940), talked with workers, and generally followed people who have worked with their hands in this modern era. To this I added my own meager experience as a mechanic; it was long out of date, but it affected the picture. Then I pulled on my coveralls and went to work with gusto.

Sketch

Montage

Final image

My photographs are little works of fiction. They aren't designed to

recreate reality or a version of reality.