We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Axel Dupeux. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Axel below.

Alright, Axel thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Are you happier as a creative? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Can you talk to us about how you think through these emotions?

I never lose sight of how privileged I am to live off photography. It still feels almost miraculous to me. This work has put me in rooms with people I once only dreamed of being near and that never gets old, it feeds my endless curiosity for people

I have spent time with some business and politics figures and more meaningfully to me, with artists and writers I most deeply admire. I once helped Tom Wolfe choose the right hat for a shoot.

I talked about photography with Jeff Bridges. John Waters gently poked some fun at my French accent. I was in the studio when Jeffrey Gibson put the finishing touches on the piece he was about to show at the Venice Biennale. My friend Robert Nava is kind enough to let me bother him with my camera while he paints. Just a few weeks ago, I was able to spend an afternoon with Siri Huvstedt, who’s one of my favorite writer, for Der Spiegel.

And then some days I just wander around Bushwick with a camera and photograph people in the street, which I love just as much.

Do I ever think about what a regular job might feel like? Occasionally, at the end of the month when bills pile up. But then I get another call and I get to go and fool around with a camera. I wouldn’t trade this for anything.

Axel, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a portrait photographer based in New York, working primarily in editorial and celebrity photography for magazines and newspapers, with a growing focus on the art world these past few years. I came here from Paris with a suitcase, a camera bag, and very little money that I had saved doing e-commerce photography. Not much of a runway, but enough to stay for a couple of months.

New York had been part of my photographic mythology since my teenage years. Almost every photographer I admired had either lived here or passed through. It felt, to me, like the place where serious work happened. Like the Sinatra song — if you can make it here.

When I arrived, I found an internship in the photo department of a downtown magazine. I wanted to understand the other side of the business, what got photographers hired. I shot constantly on the side and knocked on a lot of doors.

That was 22 years ago.

I think of portraiture as a form of journalism I like a certain frontality (Is that a word in English?), without artifice and no elaborate staging. I often say I like to photograph “à hauteur d’homme”, at eye level, on equal footing. I am fascinated by the geography of faces, the expressions that flicker at the edges of a posed moment. What I try to bring to every session is an honest and uncompromising depiction of the person in front of me, how I perceive them, what I see in them, what they may not even see in themselves.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Honestly, what I wish I had understood earlier is the business side of the gig. The financial and commercial mechanics of running a creative practice. They didn’t really teach you that in photography school, or I wasn’t listening, and nobody warns you how much of your time and energy it will eventually consume.

I was never completely in the dark, but my focus was always on the work, on the next assignment, the next door to knock on. The business side was something I dealt with reactively rather than strategically. I wish I had been more intentional about it earlier; how to price my work properly, how to negotiate, how to invest wisely, financial literacy in general.
Photographers can have very good years and very lean ones, and knowing how to make the good years actually work for you in the long run is a skill I wish I had developed sooner.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Honestly? That’s somewhat of a cautionary tale.
When I arrived in New York, Myspace was the big thing. I thought that was pretty dumb but I did the Myspace thing. Then it was Facebook and the blogs, didn’t love it but fine, whatever, I blogged and poked and added friends who weren’t really friends.
Then Instagram arrived and I categorically refused to sign up for yet another one of these damn things.
Well that was a mistake! Instagram soon became the industry standard for photographers whether I liked it or not, and I currently sit at under 3,000 followers and I don’t feel very cool at parties.
Not really.
I genuinely don’t really give a shit. The work I am most proud of did not come from Instagram.
But i guess my only advice is, sign up to the next platform early even it seems idiotic.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.axeldupeux.com
• Instagram: @axeldupeux

Image Credits

Photo on me by Alonzo Maciel.
All others images by me