French photographer Linda Tuloup’s work revolves around the concepts of privacy and identity. She realizes recently after his portraits in the confined space and the cozy room, a series of images called Chimères, where she explores, this time outside (forest, woodland, clearings), the nature of women. Creatures it depicts, half-human, half-animal, often move in vast landscapes, with whom they have a relationship of complicity. In these blank spaces, they are in their place, freed from all restraint, giving free rein to express their innermost, revealing a primal force overlooked.

You shot this woman in a state of nature, her naked body among the leaves, bark and moss. She always appears half-human, half-animal, as if metamorphosing into a faun. How does this type of staging come to you, what desires are they designed to fulfil?


Having spent a whole year locked in my room to shoot naked women lying on a bed, for my series “la chambre rose”, it became obvious I had to go out into the forest, get lost, and recreate a divine, feline and feminine reality.
A hymn to wandering, in a sense. To nature. Our nature.
Staging is a way to create images of the natural and instinctive power that women have within.




Let’s take a look at this image more specifically. Here, the mask is actually a bird taking flight, thus hiding the woman’s face. Her hands blend with the wings of the dove. There is a sense of motion and immediacy not usually found in your other images, making it almost “noisy” compared to the rest of your work. What were the shooting conditions like? How did you approach it?


I was in the middle of creating my series “chimera”, and I wanted to try something else, where the live animal became the mask.
I photographed the moment when the model let go of the bird, when woman and animal merged and became one.
I tried to combine planning and randomness. When facing his models, Giacometti felt that “their head became like a cloud, vague and boundless”.
The bird’s fleeting trace serves as a mediator between heaven and earth.




How do you work with your model?


My work is not separated from my life. I involve friends and family.
 I deliberately wanted the same body to return in different forms.
 The model is a friend of mine. I chose her to embody this “animal-woman”.
 Our intimate and trusting relationship allow me to approach my work with plenty of freedom.
 She knows about my world; these are special moments, especially when working with nudity. In nature.






Why have you chosen to constantly shoot in a square 6 x 6 format - and for this particular work, in black and white?


I work with a Rolleiflex. To me, it is a magical object, a box of melancholy you might say. 
I like to load the film roll, with only 12 frames, wait and discover.
 My photography is “human” - a feeling I do not obtain with digital.
The choice of black and white enhances the unreal aspect, because life itself is in colour…

Eros et nature, Chapelle Sainte-Anne, Arles, 2016
Turbine Art Fair, Erdmann Contemporary Gallery, Joannesburg, 2015
Désirs de femmes, Galerie Joseph Antonin, Les rencontres de la photographie, Arles, 2015
Je, tu, elles, Chapelle Sainte-Anne, Arles, 2015
Dreams to reality, Erdmann Contemporary Gallery, Cape Town, 2014
Et la tendresse, bordel, Galerie Obrose, Paris, 2014
De l'air, des bêtes, Paris, 2013
Figures, Mois de la photo, Paris, 2012
Nus et Paysages, Collection 02, Hôtel de Sauroy, Paris, 2012
La chambre rose, Collection 01, Galerie Frédéric Moisan, Paris, 2010
Du pays des songes, Megève, 2009