Clémence Elman & Léonard Contramestre

Who are they?

Clémence Elman

After studying political science at the IEP in Toulouse, Clémence Elman (b.1992) joined the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie, in Arles, from which she graduated in 2020.

In 2020, she was one of the photographers selected for the 35th edition of the Hyères Fashion, Photography and Accessories Festival at the Villa Noailles, for the Photo Marseille prize, and for the Athens Photo Festival. She is exhibited in the Dior Prize for Photography and Visual Arts for Young Talents 2021 at LUMA Arles. In 2022, she was one of the resident artists at the Rencontres de la jeune photographie internationale at the Villa Pérochon and received the Prix Sud Emergence for the short film Tornerò co-directed with Léonard Contramestre. In February 2023, she has just completed a residency at the Centre de la Photographie de Mougins.

In 2021, she created with Siouzie Albiach and Marie Hervé the MYTO project – independent publisher, research office and story factory -, proposing the book as a space for experimentation.

Léonard Contramestre

Léonard Contramestre (b.1996) grew up in Nice where he began his artistic studies. Afterwards, he did a DNA at the art school of Annecy (ESAAA) where he developed mainly photographic, video and installation work. His practice of the image directs him thereafter naturally towards the school of photography (ENSP) of Arles, of which he is graduate in 2022.

He works several times for different directors on film projects, such as Enrique Ramirez in 2021 – as a cinematographer – for the film Jardin Migratoire as part of the Rencontres de la Photographie in Arles and Samir Ramdani for his film La Cellule screened at the FID Marseille in 2020.projected in 2022 during the Rencontres de la photographie d’Arles, then as part of the festival OVNI where his short film Tornerò, co-directed with Clémence Elman receives the Sud Emergence award. Today he works on several residencies, film and photography projects.

Their residency

Inspired by the French Riviera, their observations on the importance of the hotel industry on the territories lead them to develop a photo and video work around luxury in the context of hotels and service.

The photos are mainly taken on film and are still in the process of being developed.

Instagram : Clémence Elman | Léonard Contramestre