A graduate of the Gobelins School in Paris, Emilie Moysson has spent over twenty years perfecting her mastery of light and portraiture. Having collaborated with renowned figures such as Spike Lee, Marjane Satrapi, John Malkovich, and Mathieu Kassovitz, she has also developed a deeply personal and sensitive artistic practice, blending staged photography, analogue processes, and light experimentation.
Her work is driven by the pursuit of the extraordinary within reality, that fleeting moment when light, framing, and emotion come together to create something truly special. Moysson works without digital retouching, instead exploring layered images, painting, and physical interventions directly during the shoot.
Through her series, she invites the viewer to step away from reality and enter a poetic, comforting space, a refuge where dream, wonder, and beauty coexist.
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How do you approach your projects ? Do you take time to fully conceptualise them before doing a quick shoot, or do you prefer to let the series evolve gradually over time ?
Concept development is essential.
The idea, the story, the “why”, what each series expresses, is what differentiates art from decoration.
The shooting process actually starts during this reflection phase. These are “tests,” initial images that help make these visions more tangible. They evolve until they become as strong as what I have in mind. There’s always a first one, the photograph that captures exactly what I want to say. That moment is a release, an extremely enjoyable phase of creation. From there, each new image contributes another part of the story.
It’s the moment when a smile appears : from composing the shot, to pressing the shutter, to selecting the overlays and revealing the final image.
Which artists, past or present, particularly inspire you ?
Guy Bourdin, Francesca Woodman, Steven Meisel, Salgado, Sarah Moon, among others, and also filmmakers like Wes Anderson, who creates moving images that feel like paintings.
What is your relationship with still life ? What attracts you to this type of composition ?
My connection to still life is closely tied to time, this constant feeling of being “pressed,” in both senses of the word. Still life brings me the joy of slowing down, taking time to think, to try, to choose the right objects, to paint them, arrange them, move them…
This “breath”, in the sense of anima, the soul’s breath, is the essence of all my personal work.
When I work with a flower, a vegetable, a stone, they are models that don’t impose their rhythm on me, or if they do, it’s the rhythm of slowness, like a walk by the ocean or a nap in the sun.
And it’s this “journey” that I offer the viewers of my images.
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About the Sunny Afternoon series
Which photographic technique did you use for this latest work ?
I work with pieces of vegetables, stones, flowers, and various everyday objects, sometimes cut and painted in gold, pink or turquoise. From these images, I create overlays. Shapes overlap, colours blend. No retouching is done, only contrast is enhanced.
The technique comes from my series Dis-moi la Fleur?, which is very dear to me because I created it during, and to support myself through, a long journey to have my little boy. It is therefore a series about resilience, an analogy for creation and birth, the fusion of two beings who create a third.
The idea is that from several simple entities, one can create something new, even more wonderful, something extraordinary.
Colour always plays a central role in your work. How do you choose your palette ?
Yes, colour is extremely important, essential even, a form of chromotherapy to soothe the body and mind.
Again, my work is about the journey, an invitation to dive into form, to disconnect, to shift your ground. For the journey to be comforting, it must be luminous and colourful.
Magical images that allow you to sip a piece of rainbow or cool off on candy ice cubes.
Can you tell me about the genesis of Sunny Afternoon ? How did the series come to life ?
I was deeply affected by the global context, an extremely anxiety-inducing atmosphere for a hypersensitive person like me. So I felt, more than ever, the need to escape the surrounding numbness and the violence of the world.
All my work is about searching for this fourth dimension of refuge, creating a world behind the world, wrapped in warmth, light and colour.
By jumping into this space of light, the viewer is protected, sheltered from the madness.
We find natural elements : leaves, vegetables, stones, and even ice cubes in their moulds. How did the idea of combining all these elements come to you ? Is there a symbolic dimension, or is it mainly an aesthetic and poetic exploration ?
Choosing the elements is essential to creating this invitation.
The objects had to be familiar, close at hand, part of everyday life, because the idea of the journey should be possible without the demands of a “real” trip, no need to plan time, spend money, or create pollution. Here the take-off is immediate, no preparation required, the journey lasts only a few minutes, the time to float above this golden zone, dive into this green material, brush against that orange point or swim through that red plane.
Everyday life becomes art. Reality becomes abstract.
Your recent work seems to move closer to abstract photography. Is this a direction you want to explore further ?
Yes, absolutely. I feel a growing need to stay close to nature and everyday objects, things we encounter constantly, and which, once slightly “pimped,” become extraordinary.
Here again, the real becomes abstract, shapes and colours like candies or rainbows, spaces where you want to settle in to sip a cocktail or simply recharge for a moment.
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To conclude
Is there a work in this series that is especially meaningful to you ?
Yes, the very first photograph, the “mother” of the series : slices of apple painted pink and turquoise, on a red background.
What are your upcoming projects, exhibitions, collaborations, or new series ?
I haven’t finished exploring this series yet, so I’ll continue working on it a bit longer.
In parallel, I’d like to begin a family-portrait series where bodies intertwine, a fusion of love, of course with colour !
Still this idea of union, blending, fusion, and immeasurable filial love.
And for a long time I’ve also wanted to create something with fish, still using paint, overlays, colours… but time…
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To find out more about Emilie Moysson’s work and follow her latest news, visit her Instagram account : @emiliemoysson
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Other articles you may like:
- ART DOSE : Evolving Territories by Caroline Desile
- ART DOSE: A journey through the colours of Emilie Moysson
- ART DOSE : The human sculpt by ANNE MOURAT
- ART DOSE : Gaël Caron and the search for density
- ART DOSE : The interpretation of daily details by SOVANN KIM
