Sold suits at Saint Laurent, modelled for three years, and now shoots fashion in the fields outside Paris.
Who are you, and how are things going?
I’m doing very well, thank you. I’m moving forward with my various projects, and it’s good to spend your days doing what you like. My name is Théo, Theo DLT as a photographer. I’m 29 and I come from a sales background: I worked for three years at Saint Laurent on Avenue Montaigne, in menswear. So photography didn’t come to me straight away. It was more of an evolution, one that reflects my own growth and my search for who I am, where I’m going and how.
How did you discover photography?
I discovered photography from the other side of the camera, to begin with. I was a model for three years, and as I got older I no longer found myself in the idea of posing, but in the idea of creating. Moving behind the camera was the logical next step.
In daily life I’m quite demanding of myself. I need to be able to go in the direction I want to go, which isn’t always easy: there’s a gap between wanting and managing. It sometimes takes time, and it took me several years to understand who I was as a person and in my art. I think I only really got there in the past four months, where I finally find myself fully in my images — even if I still want to take them much further. The foundation has been laid.
How were your first years? Did you know what you wanted to shoot?
My first years were more experimental. I tried a lot of different cameras, different directions with colour, analogue then digital then back to analogue. It was essential work to find myself in the photographs I make now.
For a long time I was only interested in fashion photography; it was the only thing I was considering. As I get older I’m more and more interested in field photography: going to a country and shooting what I find there, the culture, the people. I’d like to bring my fashion background into that, and combine it with everyday subjects.
What does a typical day look like?
I left Paris a year and a half ago and I now live in the countryside, 75 km away. So a typical day is organising my schedule for the days ahead, setting up artistic and commercial projects, going into Paris, seeing my friends and my girlfriend, shooting, organising parties, visiting exhibitions, wandering around new places, looking for inspiration in different ways. Doing what I like, day to day.
What advice would you give your younger self?
To give time its time. Everything falls into place little by little; you need to trust yourself and your future. Sometimes wanting to go too fast is what holds you back.
And your strongest work so far?
That’s a difficult one to answer, because my tastes and my personality keep changing over the course of my life. I’m constantly challenging myself, and what I like today may be different tomorrow.
Pick one photograph and tell us the story behind it.
This is one of my most recent photographs and I really like it. It was taken six days ago, in the field by my house.
We’d spent the evening at home with friends and on a whim we decided to wait for dawn and take some impromptu pictures, straight after dancing and partying all night. A beautiful way to start a new day, I think.
Where does your inspiration come from, and is there a photographer you’d like us to interview?
Many photographers inspire me on a daily basis: Fanny Latour, Ronan Gallagher, James Perolls, Louie Banks, Alex Huanfa Cheng.
What’s next?
I hope there will be many new projects. I consider myself a baby in photography and I still have a lot to learn, to understand, to develop and to show, so I hope to keep moving forward.
