HARRY FAYT
Underwater Temptations
by Harry Fayt
ph.: Harry Fayt
t: Emanuele Cucuzza
Harry Fayt is a young Belgian photographer whose work focuses primarily on aesthetic research related to the theme of water. Like many artists both past and present, the female figure, epitome of beauty, fascinates, influences and guides him towards his artistic evolution. He has chosen to photograph the female figure in water, a natural and vital component of life, pure and complex. Series after series, new elements are integrated, with each experiment inspiring the next, so as to finally, as though an alchemist of beauty, achieve aesthetic transcendence.
In its nudes, Harry Fayt seeks for beauty, purity, and a certain angelism.
Beauty in its purest form. For some reasons yet to be discovered, since he’s 4, Harry Fayt never liked to swim at the surface, as being underwater would be a second nature for him. In this kind of photography all falls within the challenge: the technical, security, models, scenery. It is a constant battle done of creative stratagems for Harry Fayt and his team. The larger the project, the more exciting it is. In its nudes, Harry Fayt seeks for beauty, purity, and a certain angelism. He likes to magnify the female body, seeing it evolving without any external pressure, no resistance. The body, its curves, curves as it is impossible to see otherwise. In all his work, his motto is to create the improbable, the non-existent and arouse curiosity...
Born in 1979 in Belgium, Harry Fayt has a revelation at 15 years old looking through fashion magazines. As many of the teenagers, he’s fascinated by models but photographers who sublime them with fantastic photographs fascinates him as well. That’s what starts his passion for fashion photography. It’s around 16, dreaming about photographing great models that he starts a photography degree in Namur. Once he got his degree, not very confident enough yet, he shoots live music performances through Europe for the musical press. In 2006 Harry Fayt opens his first studio in Liège. Three years later he invests in underwater photographic equipment and starts shooting babies underwater but quickly, after testing with friends, the good result takes him back to fashion photography, underwater. However, his curiosity gets him to settle down in New York to open a new studio. Reaching success after only 7 months, he headed back to Belgium to take advantage of an opportunity. Once back, in parallel with his fashion and underwater portraits, he starts a personal project which brings him back to the essential, “the female figure” in its purest form, the nude. Step by step, his work evolves and finds itself a new audience: the art world of galleries and collectors.
If Harry Fayt’s sub aquatic nudes attracted very special attention due to their originality and their uniqueness, yet his underwater scenes and portraits started going beyond that and brought him to sign with the young but nevertheless fabulous Macadam Gallery in Brussels in June 2014. With his unique style, Harry Fayt has attracted major magazines through the world: China, Switzerland, UK, Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands, Armenia, etc, and tons of blogs through the world bringing brands such as Wacoal, Samsonite or Didier Parakian to trust his underwater vision for their imagery. Besides his nude artwork, Harry Fayt never stops experimenting and is now working on portraying artists and iconic, surrealist images, just as he did with “The Flood” or the very successful “La Fille au Poisson Rouge”.
“I am still very greedy for new experiments.”
What is the aspect of underwater photography that intrigues you the most?
“The unknown element, the surrealism of it, everything has to be done beneath the surface. It’s always a quest for my team and I to find out what to do to achieve what we expect the result to be.”
You call yourself a surrealist photographer, and some of your sets are definitely so, especially when, for example, you create a drawing room under water… What novels or films stroke your fancy as a young man and affect your work today?
“Strangely I am not really into fantastic cinema but I am inspired by the special effects I could have seen in something like The Matrix or those Sci-Fi movies where they have like a mirror you can walk into, kind of Stargate to another world. What I am the most interested in cinema is the use of light. We are actually working on that, to build the light as you could do it in a cinema or in a studio. When it comes to the light I am really impressed by Equilibrium, every frame is a canvas, a world in black and white, once cold, once warm…”
What stands out in your underwater photos is cleanliness: that of the models’ skin, of the surrounding environment and the colours… A rather “commercial” approach, even though the end result of some images is definitely fine art… How do you make it look like there is nothing, not even the water, between your camera and the subject?
“As the water is supposed to be clean, we work in public pools. The choice of the pool is very important and I always check the place before shooting there. The closest you shoot from your model the less loss of quality you have in your images. If you shoot with back light, it’s going to light up all the impurities and bubbles that you have in the water, but if it’s under control, it can be an interesting effect. In post-production you can also erase bubbles and floating particles. I sometimes like to erase all evidence indicating that the photo was taken underwater so you think it was taken on dry land even though you see that there is something strange… and that’s what I like. I often hear people trying to figure out how it was done, quoting lots of funny hypothesis that make me smile.”
Do you always work only in swimming pools?
“Yes, so far I’ve mainly worked in pools, sometimes in private ones, but they are not deep enough. It’s just about that indeed, the depth. If I need to sink all the staging I will need a higher level of water and I will search for a public pool with the feature I need.”
“When you do something with passion you can’t be wrong.”
Do you expect to shoot also at the bottom of the sea or a lake or do you have no interest in that at all?
“Well, I am mostly a studio photographer and I like having it all under control. My way to work in pool is like working in a studio, where I have my backgrounds, my lights and my team. If I want to shoot tomorrow I can do it. In the sea you need different techniques, you depend on the weather, on the flow, on the season, on the sun, on the distance to go there, you need a boat etc… I love my pool ;)!”
Where do you think you stand in refining this photographic genre?
“I am still very greedy for new experiments, and I would say that everything has to be done underwater, we are not that many out there, so the future is promising ^^!”
And in the way of illustrating feminine beauty?
“Since the creation of the world, beauty and femininity have been an endless inspiration for artists, and I don’t think it will end one day. My way of illustrating feminine beauty will certainly evolve as underwater photography is still a modern way of expression. From simple shapes of beauty to multi reading images, I want to dig deeper and deeper.”
Underwater photography has always attracted a lot of attention and right now, thanks also to technological developments, the number of professionals and amateurs that focus on it is growing… Isn’t there a risk that it might become an inflated sector? Is there any way you can prevent becoming a victim to a fickle fashion?
“Well it’s true that UW comes as a trend but the difference is that most of the people do it for fun. To me, it’s more than a passion or a job, it’s my life. If you want to do it seriously it also costs a lot of money and I have a totally devoted team. I am curious about what others do but I am not afraid of it. It motivates me. When you do something with passion you can’t be wrong.”
In your opinion, what sets your photos apart?
“My images are different because they are thought and staged as they would be out of water in a studio or a fashion set. I like to create my underwater imagery around a vision, a light or a concept to finally emote with the viewer. As long as I remember emotions have led my work. Either I was shooting musicians on stage or babies in a studio I was always moved by the same force, emotions. I have never been attracted to empty images.“
ABOUT THE ARTIST.
Harry Fayt was born in 1979 in Charleroi, Belgium. As far as he can remember, he has always had a special connection with water. It was however not the most suitable connection for him…
Victim of a chronic ear infection in his childhood, his treatment kept him away from pools under any circumstances. Nevertheless, stubborn and determined as a teenager can be to explore water, he developed a severe infection. A qualified doctor eventually authorized his underwater freedom.
At the age of fifteen while he was browsing through a Vogue magazine, he was fascinated by the way of bringing out the beauty in every woman. He therefore enrolled at “Félicien Rops” Technical Institute in Namur, hoping to become a fashion photographer.
In 1998, guided by his second passion, music, he wandered through Europe for years immortalizing artists for the music-related press.
In 2006, in Liège, he opened his portrait studio. Three years later, after having invested in specialized underwater photo material, he took his first swimming babies’ shots.
By merging his adolescent dream with his new studio, the pool, Harry Fayt managed to become a fashion underwater photographer.
Bored with surface swimming, underwater peacefulness and serenity became his playground. He started to lure his preys like in a net in order to immortalize them, setting them free thereafter.
2011 marked the beginning of a personal project: immortalizing woman in her simplest appearance by coming back to the original purity of the nude.
This evolution led him to the environment of art galleries and enabled him to encounter collectors drawn by the uniqueness of his works.
HARRY FAYT
Photographer: Harry Fayt
Interviewer: Emanuele Cucuzza
Courtesy of Image in Progress magazine
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