Artist Feature: Lydia Metral
Lydia Metral (Grenoble, 1986) is a French self-taught photographer with a Spanish background working between Paris and Barcelona. Her personal photography projects focuse mainly on intimacy, taking snapshots of her friends, lovers, family and documenting her life and the queer community which she belongs to.
Les Insouciants (The Reckless) is a documentary project about young adults who feel different, who don’t fit in the standards of society, and who try to escape the established norms. For five years, Lydia has been taking photos of friends, acquaintances and people she met through the project itself within the queer community with the intention to give them visibility, to show them as they really are in a space forged in their image, and where they can express themselves freely. Despite facing difficulties, all of them had the courage to embrace who they are.
“This work is a tribute to youth, to individuality, to diversity and to difference. It also a project about love, self-love and self-acceptance. In a world torn apart, where inequality and discrimination remains, I felt it was vital to show a youth beyond the divisions that are constantly imposed. With this series, my objective is to invite my audience to experience the beauty, warmth and authenticity of my encounters.”
Photography by Lydia Metral
Q: Can you share something you've learned from creating this body of work that would resonate with our community?
LM: I started this body of work in 2014 when I was still living in Paris. As a queer woman, I was really interested in immersing myself in the queer community. When I was younger I wish I had experienced more queer imagery, that would have helped me to understand and accept myself a lot more. In this project I am interested in taking portraits in intimate spaces, forged in my model's image. I want to show them as they really are, with no artifice, mostly at home or in spaces where they would feel safe and identify with their surroundings. I have learned a lot about the many identities within the queer community, I learnt a lot about gender and discovered so many things about masculinity and femininity, there is not one way to feel feminine, masculine or non binary. It's been such a beautiful adventure, I've met so many amazing people through the project and I have learnt a lot about myself and as a queer woman who doesn't identify with the standard norms of society, it helped me not to feel so alone. I became a more open minded person, and I know I have to work a lot in order to fully deconstruct myself. But more importantly it gave me the energy to want to fight against clichés and stigmas within our community, fight against sexism, homophobia, transphobia, racism and so on to represent a spectrum of varying identities. It was crucial for me to respect the way my models wish to be portrayed and for them to be part of the photographic process. I use my imagery to glorify our community, show their strength and variety. The more society becomes familiar with queer imagery the more "acceptable" it will become and hopefully in the future our community will totally integrated to mainstream society and will no longer feel the need to fight for visibility. My hope is that they will never be discriminated against for who they are, rejected by their families and friends or fear for their life.
Q: Tell us about your work process! Do you plan your images ahead or are you more improvisational?
LM: For this piece of work, the images were never planned. Although I have some inspiration from photographers I like and who inspired my practice like Nan Goldin or Wolfgang Tillmans who are two big influences. I would arrive at people's place and totally improvise the session according to space and light. I have to say that it is very exciting not knowing where you are going to take pictures ! I love improvisation, I think it helped me to become a better photographer and adapt to any situation. I also enjoy discovering my model’s world through the session. It is also very important to connect with the model, ask questions, build conversation, have a good time, be curious and listen to what they have to say. I had some photo sessions that turned into really magical moments with a deep connection. My models often open up to me, tell me very intimate stories that really bring meaning and depth to my work. As I said above I want the model to be part of the process and I always make sure they feel comfortable.
Photography by Lydia Metral
Q: What types of expectations for artists are most challenging to you today?
ML: One of the main expectations for all of us is to get financial income from our photographic work. It is so hard to make a living as a photographer and you often have to compromise, doing work that you might not relate to or even work that is not related to photography. There is a lot of competition, but I think everyone can coexist and every individual has something to bring to the table and to add a new perspective. Although, it's very difficult to get sustainable work. Unfortunately it's still an industry led by cis white men, usually the same photographers get all the big commissions. Another challenge is brought by social media and even though it allows more visibility there is a tendency to manipulate your practice and in order to gain more popularity, which is something I struggle with. In terms of promoting work outside of social media, it is challenging as it is a world that can be very elitist and it tends to be very pretentious and monolithic. I do think that it is starting to improve as we are starting to see the emergence of more diversity in art committees, but we still have a long way to go.
Q: What is your advice to young and aspiring photographers?
ML: Find your own style and never try to imitate current trends. It’s important to remember that only you can create your work, so make sure it’s something you identify with. Be persistent, never give up, always be very proactive and keep on creating pictures, editing if you're not inspired, send your work to everyone, don’t wait for work but create your own. Also you have to accept that sometimes it's difficult and maybe you have to make a living from something else, it doesn't mean you are not a talented photographer. Also be gentle and kind to yourself.. You have to accept that sometimes you don’t have inspiration and take these moments to read, go to exhibitions, rest, do something that has nothing to do with photography, travel, spend time with your family and friends. Inspiration will come :)
Photography by Lydia Metral
Q: What does being a feminist mean to you?
ML: Being a feminist is not just related to having equality between women and men even though we have to really work on that. It’s a reflection about what is to be a woman and a man, what is femininity and masculinity, how do we deconstruct both in order to get rid of toxic behaviours. It’s also about love and how we bring people together, femininity is about caring about various identities. But if you think forward, equality and respect has to be considered for everyone, for minorities as well. For me it’s very important to include minorities like trans identities in the feminism movement. They are our allies, and they will help us to get rid of patriarchy and toxic behaviours. Unfortunately there is a very long path toward equality and maybe we’ll never truly achieve it. But I think it has to be an objective for everyone, we have to fight for it if we want to live in a more inclusive and compassionate society.
Q: Do you have any upcoming events, exhibitions, or news you'd like to share?
ML: My series is going to be exhibited in the streets of Koln in Germany thanks to the Queer festival Heidelberg who featured my work earlier this year amongst amazing photographers. I want to move this series to festivals and exhibitions, maybe work on a book or a publication. I will also continue the series and include a wider variety of people to make this piece of work really complete and diverse.
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