The French photographer Yann Orhan is the artistic director of the video capture of the Montreux Jazz Festival concerts. Specializing in record covers, he works behind the scenes as a puppeteer of the images projected on the screens of Stravinsky and the Lab.
His name is not well known in Switzerland. But in France, Yann Orhan is one of the most sought after rock photographers. Always close to the soul of the artists he captures in his lens, he is the author of the album covers of many stars of French-speaking song: Françoise Hardy, Mathieu Chedid, Hubert-Félix Thiéfaine, Renaud, Arthur H, Bertrand Cantat or Thomas Dutronc, to name but a few.
In Switzerland, the Valais singer Marc Aymon and the Geneva musician Eric Linder, alias Polar, have also each called on his talents to dress one of their record covers.
A huge challenge
For its 56th edition, the Montreux Jazz Festival (MJF) turned to him to bring a fresh look and artistically revisit the video capture of its concerts. The festival team hired him outright as artistic director in this visual field, giving him carte blanche.
“I was quite surprised to be called for that, but I had done things that the MJF officials had liked and which corresponded to their expectations,” Yann Ohran told Keystone-ATS, on the sidelines. the concert of Lebanese trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf on Thursday evening. ‘Honestly, it’s a huge challenge. It’s just crazy for me,’ he enthuses.
‘I feel like I’ve entered the legend of the festival. I hope to be there for at least three years to see how far we can go’ in terms of video recording, he says. The artist does not hide even wanting to ‘try to embed himself for longer’. And why not leave your visual mark on the Montreux Jazz.
Like shooting a movie
The public was thus able to discover the creations of this image puppeteer throughout the fortnight of the festival, on the two large screens on either side of the stages of the Autitorium Stravinski and the Monteux Jazz Lab (ex-Miles Davis Hall ).
‘We removed all the machinery and put people in their place. We have nine cameras every day at Stravinski and five at the Lab. On stage, from the side, in the back, in front and also on camera worn in the audience. We work with two teams, one for each room,” explains Yann Ohran. He pulls the human and technological strings from the OB van.
‘I like the idea of going further than just recording concerts, making a film in a way, even if it is perhaps a little pretentious’, he adds. ‘The real first project that was signed to do something else was with Nick Cave. We captured the whole concert and I’m going to take another month of editing to do something else. He won’t say more.
‘Black Mirror’
Born in 1970, Yann Ohran currently lives in Paris. After studying visual communication, he then turned to photography, graphic design and production. Over the course of emblematic encounters, he essentially focused on the record industry as artistic director.
On his website, he explains that he also worked for Leonard Cohen, Lang Lang, Julien Doré, Bruce Springsteen, Quincy Jones, Imelda May, Renaud, Michel Polnareff, Damon Albarn, Tears For Fears, Miossec, Ayo, Gaëtan Roussel, Sallie Ford , Axel Bauer, Lou Doillon, Johnny Halliday and Jacques Dutronc. For record covers, photo portraits or video clips.
At the same time, he developed a more personal photographic work, mixing family portraits and still lifes. For example, he worked on a series called ‘Our Invisible Lives’, which focused mainly on emptiness, lack and self-abandonment. In 2010 he published a photographic book, ‘Memories, black mirror’.
/ATS