Didier Carré joined the high school photo club as a teenager and although he became passionate about black and white photography, his passion didn't become obsession until he was twenty and bought his first camera.
It was an automatic Minolta XD7 with a 2fps motor and three lenses: 28mm, 50mm and a sexy 80/200 zoom. He loved that inanimate object as you would something animate, a pet, a lover, and he has it still twenty-five years later, the case worn by use and stored safely with his collection.
Carré wanted to photograph girls, of course, but was much too timid to ask. He cleverly found an alternative: he shot shop window mannequins, the statues in Paris parks and streets, the occasional stranger captured in the distance like something glimpsed out of the corner of the eye.
His fascination with the human form grew more intense as those early images emerged in the developing tray. He then made a decision that would change his life by signing up at a photographic school and undergoing vocational training to acquire a certificate in photography. Like that Minolta XD7, it is safely filed away at the studio.
Didier knew he was going to devote his life to photography and devoted his life savings on a 6x6 Hasselblad 500C with a 50mm lens. He was shooting mainly in black and white, creating photo documentaries and reports, learning to mix his own chemicals, pushing the frontiers of his ability and technique. He even managed to get a few girls to pose and like the clouds evaporating and leaving a clear blue sky behind, he saw a vision of the female form as fine art.
It was 1983. He was ready to start pursuing his vision when an official brown envelope dropped through the door and landed with a thud. Didier had been called up to do military service for his country.
Photographing that first nude would have to wait.
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