ait Dialogue #38: François Halard

We meet François Halard, one of the most influential photographers of interiors and artists’ spaces. From the studios of Louise Bourgeois and Cy Twombly to his own home in Arles, Halard has spent decades photographing places as if they were living characters.

/ François in dialogue with Selin & Eylül /

François Halard is one of the most influential photographers working in the realm of interiors and artistic spaces. Moving between his Greenwich Village apartment and his 18th-century hôtel particulier in the South of France, he travels the world photographing the homes, gardens, and studios of remarkable figures - from Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly and Louise Bourgeois to Luigi Ghirri, John Richardson, and Saul Leiter - as well as iconic places such as Casa Malaparte, Villa Noailles and La Maison de Verre.

For more than two decades, Halard has contributed to Condé Nast publications and The New York Times, while publishing numerous books including Visite Privée, Francois Halard, Casa Ghirri, The House That Jack Built, Saul Leiter, Polaroids Italiens, and El planeta de los toros. His photographs - attentive to architecture, objects, and the play of light - have also been presented in galleries and museums around the world.

We’re very honored to have you with us. How have you been lately?

I’ve just finished the installation of my latest exhibition "Ne rien jeter, 33 ans apres" in Aix en Provence at Gallifet. The exhibition will run throughout the summer until September 27.

You’ve photographed so many remarkable spaces over the years. When you enter a place for the first time, what do you usually notice before anything else?

When I enter a place, I follow the light like a sorcerer. I try to photograph the invisible.

Your photographs rarely feel like simple documentation of interiors, they feel almost like portraits of a place. What tells you that a room is “ready” to be photographed?

A place is ready when it begins to speak to you, when you’re able to create a dialogue with it.

You often focus on very small details - a corner, a chair, a stack of books… What makes a fragment more interesting to you than the whole room?

Sometimes you can convey more through a detail — by showing just a little, by suggesting — than by photographing something in entirety.

Cezanne's studio, shot by François

Many of the spaces you photograph feel as if someone has just stepped out of the room. Is that sense of presence something you consciously look for?

I like to feel the human presence in my photographs even if you don't see it. I guess I like photographing ghosts.

You’ve photographed the studios of artists like Cy Twombly and Louise Bourgeois. What do you learn about an artist by observing the space where they work?

I think the artist's place or studio is the best autobiography of the person. It is a way to be closer to the artists that I admire; such as Morandi, Rauchenberg, Louise Bourgeois, Cy Twombly, Julian Schnabel …

The New York apartment of Louise Bourgeois, shot by François

I recently watched an interview filmed in your home in Provence, and the space itself felt almost like a living archive - full of objects, artworks and memories layered together. How does living in a space like that influence the way you see and photograph other interiors?

My house in Arles is an endless source of inspiration. It is like a book with different chapters and I specially enjoy photographing what I have been collecting over the years.

François Halard's house in Arles, photographed by him for Architectural Digest

You still work largely with film in a very fast digital world. What does film allow you to do (or feel) that digital photography doesn’t?

I think analog photographs give a depth and a richness that digital photography doesn't do for me. Also when I am using a polaroid, it is the idea of making another unique object.

When you’re not photographing, what does an ideal day look like for you?

I guess I like to keep producing. Drawings, paintings, sculptures… I like to always be in a creative moment.

After photographing so many interiors around the world, what makes a place truly feel like home to you?

I guess I feel home next to the Mediterranean, in Arles or in Greece. I can see Turkey from my windows in Greece. I feel as if I must have lived in these places in ancient times. They are my main source of inspiration.