Today at Icy Tales, we have Pierre with us. He is 38 years old and lives in France near Paris with his wife, Marine. He has an 8-year-old daughter, Tess, with whom he creates or recreates scenes from life or scenes from movies, video games, and series. Tess has also been featured in advertisements because of their Instagram account.
Q) Please tell us something about your daughter, and how did you come up with the idea of engaging your daughter with your work?
Pierre – Tess is a great little girl; we get along great. We started our photos a little before she was 3 years old. I wanted to make an original photo album so that she has funny memories when she becomes an adult. I wanted to make an original photo album so that she has funny memories when she becomes an adult. When I saw funny baby photos on the internet, I had the idea of creating a universe of our own by featuring a baby in famous films or video games or series that everyone knows.
Q) When did you come up with this idea, and how did you think this will be engaging with your audience?
Pierre – I had this idea shortly after he was born. I had taken a picture or put it in a dish to go in the oven, and it was only a few weeks old. But it took me a while to really get into this hobby because I didn’t want to bother her when she was a baby. Many people have children, and it’s an inexhaustible source of humour; I challenge the public by offering them things they know (breaking bad, jean-Claude van damme, street fighter) whether it’s the French or foreigners, everyone knows these things that are in popular culture. We always try to have ideas that speak to everyone.
Q) It seems your daughter is your best friend as well! Tell us something more about your family.
Pierre – I met my wife Marine 11 years ago at work. We live not far from Paris. We had Tess 2 years later. I absolutely wanted a daughter, and I find that father-daughter relationships are magical, and I wanted to highlight it through our photos. She’s a good actress, and she likes to dress up and act like it’s a movie. We both work in Paris, and we work easy hours; we have a lot of free time to take care of Tess. We love playing with her, going to Disneyland, and spending the most time with her, and it’s important for children. We have a cat called Romy, we try to involve her in some photos, but it’s still complicated.
Q) How often do you post on your social media platforms, and how do you aim to increase your engagement with your followers?
Pierre – It depends on a lot of things. You must already have ideas; sometimes, I will have 5 in advance, and we will try to make them. Sometimes, I don’t publish anything; we need to be more regular. I know that, so we do new things (story comics or funny videos). Tess also has to want to do it. The ideal would be to publish once a week, every Saturday, for example, because it is at this moment that people look at social networks the most. Sometimes, we take 2 or 3 photos to get ahead during the day.
Q) What are the challenges you face in a work/career like yours, and how do you overcome them?
Pierre –The hardest challenge is to renew yourself to offer different photos and, above all, to have ideas that appeal to you. There are also some projects that we have to abandon
because they are difficult to achieve. I overcome them by reading a lot about cinema, and video games to give me ideas. Sometimes I also ask my wife and my daughter to give me ideas.
There is also the decor to make; as soon as I have my project in mind, I look for an image, if possible, of good quality on the internet, and I print it large; it takes me time. I use paper that goes in the trash, and I print behind several sheets. I then glue them together like a puzzle, for example, the squid game scene that you can see on our Instagram account.
Q) How do you deal with the negativity/trolls that come with your work?
Pierre – To be honest there aren’t many. Everyone has his opinion. I already had some articles on Internet pages, and in general, people like them, and I have very good comments. Once a person didn’t like it because he thought you shouldn’t put pictures of your child on the internet.
Another time an article had titled & quot; this dad and his daughter are the kings of photoshop " some people laughed because precisely we do not master photoshop at all. I did not understand why they had put this title. We prefer to make our decorations on paper. I used a little photoshop to improve the quality, but I am not satisfied with the result of some photos.
Q) How do you cope with creative blocks?
Pierre – Sometimes I have a great idea, I try to think of how to do it, I ask my wife and my daughter for advice. Then I see that it’s impossible to do so, and I move on while still keeping this idea in my head. For example, it’s been a very long time since I wanted to take a picture with my daughter hanging from a bridge with crocodiles underneath; very hard to do with paper.
Q) Some tips for beginners who could learn something from your work?
Pierre – I will tell them to have a lot of inspiration and write everything down. Last time we had a great idea with my daughter, and we just forgot about it… Having a good camera too. Our photos are very "beginner" because we have no equipment we do everything ourselves, the best would be to have a computer with software to correct the photos and make them better.
Q) What is the one thing you love and hate about your work?
Pierre – I hate cutting the sheets for the decorations (ah ah ah); it’s very long, then I have to glue the sheets next to each other, it’s really boring. My favourite thing is to imagine a scene at the beginning in my head and to see the result at the end. Sometimes with my daughter, we look at all our photos from the beginning; these are nice moments.
Q) If not what you are doing now, what would you do and why?
Pierre – I think that’s what I always wanted to do. Who has never dreamed of acting in the cinema? Doing that with my daughter allows us to have fun playing the actors; we talk to her a lot before taking a picture, explain to her why, and ask a lot of questions. It arouses his curiosity, and that’s a good thing. A few days ago, a friend offered us to shoot an ad for the internet, we went there, and it was a great experience. If it can allow her to make movies, then why not but anyway, she will decide; we always ask her opinion
Q) How do you spend time when you are free or don’t have a lot of workload?
Pierre – I do many sports, play football, make music (drums), and cook a lot. On our Instagram page, we have a small cooking section. We spend a lot of time at Disneyland Paris, and we have an annual pass so we can go there whenever we want; it 's always good family time. Tess also does gym on Saturdays, and she loves it.
Q) What are your plans for the future?
Pierre – We will continue our photos. At the moment, we have been discreet because Tess has caught the flu, and at the moment, I am lacking in inspiration. We loved shooting the commercial, so if Tess wants to continue, that would be great. The most important thing is to spend time together; I am convinced that taking these photos gives her confidence and self-confidence.
Last Updated on by Mehar Jolly
