A famous photographer in the world of interior design, Matthieu Salvaing has a talent for capturing the light of places and the truth of faces. Through his portraits of well-known figures and images of architecture, he embellishes the art of living with an accessible elegance. From Brazil to the Camargue region of France, his gaze reveals beauty wherever it may be hiding.
When asked whether his work offers the chance to meet wonderful people, the man in question exclaims, “That is the essence of my life!” Matthieu Salvaing started out his photography journey following a life-changing encounter with Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer. Having found himself in Brazil after his art studies in France, he struck up a friendship with the architect’s family. Over time, he and Niemeyer forged a close bond, too. “We had a really friendly relationship – he gave me feedback on my photographs and that’s how I ended up working in the industry,” says the photographer. Matthieu Salvaing was given the opportunity to photograph the architect’s buildings as part of a major publication in 2007.
Then the publications kept coming. Matthieu Salvaing started taking on an increasing number of commissions for fashion, architecture and lifestyle magazines, shooting many covers for AD in particular. He takes photographs of places, but also of the people who inhabit them, and always keeps one eye open, ready to be amazed. “I was in India recently and at one point, I stumbled across an amazing Buddhist temple in the north-west of the country. The colours were just incredible. You could write a whole book just on this temple, with its columns, carvings and colours.”
Being from the Camargue, photography was right on his doorstep thanks to the Arles Festival. But it was another chance encounter that gave the young man his big break. In 2004, Matthieu Salvaing went behind the scenes of famous director Wong Kar-Wai’s movie 2046 when he covered it for Vogue magazine. It was a revelation and a way of anchoring his early work into something that would last. “Over time, I realised that a single photograph could change your career,” says the photographer. You can still find the film director’s portrait on his website.
While he confesses with some embarrassment that his carbon footprint is not what it could be due to his extensive travelling (around three or four trips each month), Matthieu Salvaing still considers himself an environmentalist and believes that we should all be more aware of our responsibility towards the planet. He takes the example of the hastily and poorly built structures in parts of Africa, while singing the praises of the ancestral and traditional methods that feature extensively in many of his images, as shown in his work on shacks in Ethiopia.
While he often shoots portraits of both ordinary people and celebrities (the painter Miquel Barceló, actress Louise Bourgoin, as well as fashion designer JW Anderson and singer Lenny Kravitz), Matthieu Salvaing remains primarily concerned with the beauty of the world in its raw and natural state, whether it be in close to home, in the Camargue – which he will visit again soon for a book project – or far away, like Rio – the subject of another publication. When you ask him what he would say to a young photographer just starting out, his reply is this: “The most important thing is to tell your story, express your innermost feelings and try to find your identity. To work on yourself. Technique isn’t that complicated; you can learn it quickly. But the real work is discovering who you are!”
