Interview with Pierre Sauvignon
April 2009: Growing up in Grenoble France, Pierre now lives in Sydney where he works as Product Manager at Pollenizer, spends his spare time Taking photos and working towards getting pxcream (an advanced photoblogging tool for pro and semi-pro photographers) open to the public.
What have you been up to Lately?
Not much really ;) – I’ve been really busy with my ‘real’ job (I’m a Product Designer for www.pollenizer.com) that doesn’t leave me with much time to walk around and take pictures. However I always manage to find some time once in a while and for example during the Easter week end I went for a little urban exploration to the old tram depot in Glebe – Photos coming soon ;)
How would you describe your work?
Fortunate. I never really plan my shots and just take what’s coming. I think it reflects on my work as my portfolio is a large melting pot of genres. I have a preference for street portraits but always find myself disappointed by my work in this area so rarely end up publishing anything in this domain…
When did you first become interested in photography?
I’ve always been interested in visual arts and when digital photography started to reach acceptable levels of quality at decent prices (that was about 8-9 years ago!) I made the move and bought my first digital camera. Digital photography was very appealing to me as it was taking off the cost of film processing and made learning photography much cheaper :) So I learned the basics with a couple of point and shoots cameras (always from the excellent Canon Digital Ixus range) and bought my first DSLR (Canon 350D) when moving to Australia about 4 years ago. That’s when I started to spend more time at taking and processing my photos.
What was the first photograph that you remember making an impression on you?
I can’t recall a specific example however I can tell you that I’m a big fan of photo-journalism and I always appreciate the lecture of the World Press Photo annual selection. The last photograph that made an impression on me was Brian Skerry’s “First encounter” . This is a brilliant photo and it looked fantastic on the Australian Museum’s wall where I saw it exhibited.
What equipment do you use for your photos? What’s your favourite lens?
A couple of months ago I bought a Canon 40D. I use it most of the time but still use my old Canon 350D as a backup/second body. I also have a couple of film camera, my favorite, and most used, being a Canon Canonet G-III QL17. With my Canon 40D my favorite lens would be my Canon 10-22 USM. It’s an awesome wide angle that opens a lot of creative angles on things :)
Can you tell us a bit about pxcream? What inspired you to create the site?
pxcream is an advanced photoblogging tool for semi pro and pro photographers. In other words this is a place where photographers can upload and showcase their pictures without all the bling bling of services such as Flickr. Flickr is great for photographic related social interaction, but it sucks when it comes to looking at pictures (ever tried browsing Flickr on a 20″+ screen? You’ll find yourself looking at thumbnails of pictures surrounded by tons of mostly un-relevant information ;)). So pxcream was born out of the conclusion that there was a need for a photographic website that would put photos first.
Pxcream was chosen in the Top 100 Web 2.0 Applications in BRW Magazine, how far away are you from releasing pxcream out of private Beta?
So close but so far ;) The technical side of pxcream is already fairly mature. I’ve designed it so that it would be massively scalable (making extensive use of Amazon Web Services). However the product design itself needs (must!) be improved. It is now a couple of years old and could be so much better. I’m just taking the time to actually work on it and iterate the design toward something more usable by everyone.The good news is that I’m now looking at raising some money to give a new kick to the project. Hopefully in the next months I’ll be able to secure a first round of financing that will allow me to spend more time on the beast and get it to the next level. Stay tuned ;)
Any other photography projects on the horizon?
Most definitely ;) My experience with pxcream gives me a solid ground to build upon and I have a couple of ideas in my bag ;) But again it’s a matter of having the time to execute those ideas…
Which photographers have influenced you most?
It’s hard to tell. I really like the work of a painter, Edward Hopper, especially his urban paintings. His paintings have a look and feel that I’d like to reach one day with my photography ;)
