Fotokunst von Gregory Herpe

Kunst in der Kunst – Fotokunst von Gregory Herpe.

23.Januar 2015

Text: Tanja Playner

Er wurde von solchen Künstlern wie David LaChapelle und Annie Leibovitz, aber auch durch Andy Warhol inspiriert. Sein Provokativer Stil und auffälliger Glamour in den Bildern hat ein klares Szenario. Er hat mit vielen Stars wie Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Psy, Jack Nickolson und Gerard Depardieu hinter den Kulissen gearbeitet und in seine konzeptuellen Fotokunstwerke integriert.

Er arbeitet mit Kunst und stellt das in seine Kunst. Der französische Star-Fotograf Gregory Herpe (geb. 1969) wurde selber als Schauspieler und Theater Direktor tätig. Er spielte in verschiedenen Theaterszenen und zusammen mit Filmen für Jean-Pierre Mocky, Pierre Etaix, Andre Techine. Doch wollte er sich auch hinter der Kamera ausprobieren. Seine spontane eklektische Art der Fotoarbeit mit David Bowie hat ihm die Türe zu seiner Kariere als Star-Fotograf geöffnet.

Gregory Herpe fotografierte Katy Perry am Friedhof, Psy hat er mit der Fotokamera auf dem Klo erwischt, Björk neben einen Riesegroßen Fisch hingelegt, Jack Nicholson im Friseursalon, aus Lady Gaga hat er einen Engel mit dem Teufelsgedanken gemacht und Bill Murray hat wegen ihn eine Perücke a la Marilyn angezogen. Verrückt?! Nein. Das ist Gregory Herpe mit seinem provokanten und auffallenden Fotostil.

Im Interview mit „About ART Magazine“(AAM) erzählte Gregory Herpe welches Fotoshooting ihm besonders in Erinnerung bleibt, und warum er die Stars genau so mit seiner Kamera verewigt hat:

AAM: - which of your shootings have you at mostly in remembrance, was a star or other inspiration?

Gregory Herpe: There are three shootings that come to my mind

The first is when I found out that David Bowie had a press release in Amsterdam, to promote his latest work, in a tv studio. At that time I had no press agency and no accreditation for photographing celebrities. I spend a few dams until a press officer blocked me. I told him by bluffing that I lost my press card and that I was a photographer of Rolling Stone Magazine. I showed him some pictures of Gerard Depardieu and Iggy Pop on my IPhone, from an earlier shoot a few month before. The press officer’s phone rang, and that he was so hurried and annoyed that he just gave me a sign to pass. Lucky? I don’t know, but I find myself with David Bowie and I made a picture with him. A month later a French news agency offered me a contract for shooting pop stars.

The second shooting that deeply marked me is when I realized a reportage about Scotland. I fell in love with this country, with its almost unreal beauty and the friendliness of the people. It is a country that changes your soul.

And finally, when I photographed “the white walk” against terrorism, early January. An historical moment for France, with 4 million people, young, old and thousands of signs with" Je Suis Charlie", on the streets to defend our freedom. These photos made headlines in Greece and Slovakia. Capturing the sentiment of this historical moment is very moving…

AAM: - why did you do that picture with Katy Perry at the cemetery?

Gregory Herpe: Katy was born in Santa Barbara, California. Her parents were both pastors and evangelists. She grew up being very involved in the pastoral life of her family and their parish. She sang in church, and was not allowed to listen to secular music! She went to a religious school and went on holiday in Christian camps.

We talked a lot in preparing this photo, I wanted to make a picture at a cemetery that represented her life before: she could be buried in Santa Barbara, marrying a pastor, and live a life of devotion, rather dreary.

On the contrary, destiny wanted her to become a totally extrovert superstar! In the photo, the man who stands in the back symbolizes the past, heavy and dusty, trying to catch her and bring her back to God. The lizard, instead, symbolizes alertness. In Aztec mythology, the lizard has a natural ability to achieve success, wealth, abundance. Katy seems to be ready to jump to his fate, in a mythical provocative pose.

AAM: - and Lady Gaga presented as an angel with the skull?

Gregory Herpe: I didn’t wanted to photograph her, in a very sex outfit and very provocative, like the others before me. I rather wanted to show her paradoxes, her dualities. Lady Gaga has also a very Catholic background. And only a few people know this, but she is very involved in charity work, and humanitarian causes. This is her angelical side. But she has another side, not really dark, but flaming, or purple, symbolized by the Hello Kitty skull. She loves provocation and that’s how she reveals herself to the public!

In the beginning she had only limited success on the stages at the Lower East Side of New York. She became a kind of ultra-kitsch cursed icon. In fact, I wanted to show a simple and authentic artist in virginal white dress with angel wings, who now hides behind the mask of a pirate pop nymphomaniac...

AAM: - The Psy in Kloo to photograph. Was that your idea or shared with the Psy?

Gregory Herpe: It was my idea. The ideas always come from me. I hate shootings in a studio, especially for promoting sessions, with 20 photographers that follow and who do all the same image. That day, I went on purpose at last and I asked Psy: Do you want to do something different? Let’s leave the studio and let’s go to the toilets!

He looks at me with bulging eyes and said to me: that's cool!

We met in small cramped toilets, he sat on the throne, his pants to his ankles, me on my knees before him doing the shoot!

We had a blast!



Neben seinen Fotoshootings hat er solche Stars wie Arnold Schwarzenegger und George Clooney interviewt. Er schoss hinter der Kamera die Bilder von einem der teuersten lebenden Künstler - Jeff Koons.

Nun jetzt ist er selbst ein Kunst-Star der Fotokunstszene.

Sogar seine eigene Art vom Selbstporträt erzählt viel über ihn. Und das alles ist Gregory Herpe. Jedoch sieht sich der Künstler lieber hinter der Kamera als vor der Kamera.

Seine Kunstwerke wurden rund um die Welt ausgestellt. Ab März präsentiert PAKS Gallery im Schloss Hubertendorf die auffälligen Kunstwerke von Gregory Herpe. Zu sehen sind limitierte Editionen von Kunstwerken mit den Stars wie Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Jack Nicholson, Peter O`Toole, Kylie Minogue und vielen anderen Music und Kinostars in provokativen Ansichten von dem Star-Fotografen Gregory Herpe.



Bildquelle: Gregory Herpe, Porträt von Gregory Herpe – Fotograf Arthur Herpe; Kritik: Curator, Dir. Heinz Playner, PAKS Gallery