Clear Nude: The Lens + the Nude, Issue IV, Summer 2015 ClearNude: The Lens + the Nude, Issue IV, Summer | Page 44

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by Allicette Torres

Allicette Torres: Where are you based?

AT: What are your go-to cameras now?

G.W. Benard: I’ve been living between Lisbon, Barce-

G.W.B: I always use an old Asahi Pentax for analogue

lona, and Paris.

and Canons for digital.

AT: How long have you been shooting photographs?

AT: Film or digital? Why?

G.W.B: I started when I was around 13, but then I took

G.W.B: It’s curious that I started photography through the

some time without shooting to come back to it again

magic of analogue/darkroom and now I find the magic in

recently. Meanwhile, I had painting and drawing as my

digital. It has been more rare for me to shoot in analogue,

mainway of expressing. My drawings were also often

so nowadays I mostly shoot in digital. It’s more “now” and

nudes. For the last 10 years, photography has been my

more flexible: being a more flexible tool, digital can give

main way of expressing, parallel to writing.

you the analogue approach or the digital one, even when
I do the shootings through webcam, like the series “B

AT: How did you get started in photography?

Shot by a Stranger” about being voyeur of naked loneli-

G.W.B: I started by doing a course of photography, ana-

ness.

logue and dark room, when I was around 13. I wanted
to learn it all, the whole process was fascinating. Like

AT: What drew you to your particular style?

magic. The process is also silent, which was something

G.W.B: I always found color, background, and textile to

I needed, so maybe it was an excuse to access solitude

be very distracting; I always preferred them in their own

as well.

silence. If a ballet dancer is amongst a crowd, it’s harder
for him to dance; he needs empty space to perform. I like

44 Clear Nude | summer 2015