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Jean-Michel
Sotto has been a photographer for over twenty years
but his interest in animal photography appeared more
recently, after the making of a promotional movie
for the Zoo of Pont-Scorff in Morbihan, Britanny.
He explaines : "it was a wonderful experience
and from movie to still picture is only a step".
He continues : "we almost always had cats
at home so going from wild to domestic cats was done
all the more smoothly". So his first stars were
his own cats and today it is still Romane, a beautiful
tri-colored persian, that gives him the opportunity
to shoot kittens of many colors randomly born from
its wandering romances.
His pictures, mainly shot in Britanny where he lives
and in Savoy, illustrate greeting cards, postcards,
writing paper, table sets, calendars and almanachs...
The pictures we're showing you were either unposed
or skillfully composed in studio. That's when his
best assistant steps in : his spouse Hélène
who is in charge of the props (found in local secondhand
markets to which the couple has a habit) and of the
setting.
Sometimes a third element interferes with the smooth
progress of the shooting : the kittens themselves,
the liveliness and the fancy of which are hardly controllable !
But Jean-Michel Sotto is very patient, unfalteringly
patient ! And after the kittens came up to his
expectances, do you think he hastenes to stroke them
all over ? Unfortunately no ! You won't
believe it but Jean-Michel Sotto is allergic to cat
fur !Therefore he won't deny himself the pleasure
of stroking them... by releasing the shutter. |
