A Chat with Darius on Making Music, Film Photographs, and Designing the Simple Use Reloadable Film Camera Darius Edition

Together with Lomography, electronic music producer and composer Darius conceived a new special edition of the Lomography Simple Use Reloadable Film Camera. Darius creates colorful, atmospheric house music with echoing chords, breaking time and space and catchy choruses. His music makes you want to dance as much as to dream, conjuring visions of wanderlust-inspired summertime escapades. With a passion for analogue and crafting his own visual universe, Darius takes aspirational photographs alongside his global tours, the perfect visual accompaniment to his French touch beats.

In celebration of the launch of the hologram-inspired limited edition camera Lomography Simple Use Reloadable Film Camera Darius Edition, we interviewed the artist about his musical career, love for analogue photography, and how he designed the new edition.

Hello Darius, we are pleased to welcome you to the Lomography Magazine. We know you as an electronic music producer and composer but less as a photographer. Could you let us know when your interest in photography started? And what is pushing you to take pictures?

Hello, I'm very pleased too. My passion for photography has always been very present as much as my passion for music. When I was a child, I was quite lonely, reserved, and very curious about arts in general. Activities like drawing, music or photography, overtook my personal occupations. And as I studied graphic design, the image always has been of great importance to me. I like to be able to capture moments of my life, of what surrounds me, and to immortalize all of this with my vision, point of view, and sensibility.

Could you let us know about your path in the music field?

My mother, as big music lover, transmitted to me a first precious musical culture that still inspires me today. My father, is more a jack-of-all-trades, he has always been very talented in drawing, painting, photography and he also played many instruments like the drums, the guitar, the bass, the piano. I did not grow with him but when I went to visit him, I spent a lot of time watching him create and compose with his instruments. It always fascinated me. When I was 12 years old, he made me discover my first musical software with a demo version of "Fruity Loops". Starting that day, I always begged him to use his computer to make music when it was possible. It was amazing, I could spend hours creating music on it. This passion never left me. At the age of 16 or 17, I started to do my first summer job and I managed to save money to buy my first laptop. I was obsessed and the first thing that I did was to install a software to be able to create as much music that I wanted. Sometime later, I created Darius.

What are your sources of inspiration to create?

I have multiple sources of inspiration and they constantly evolve because they are linked to the people I meet, to moments of my life, to memories.

You use analogue keyboards, produce vinyls and take analogue photos. What do you love about analogue, both in music and photography?

I associate analogue with something organic. It's very different from the digital world in which everything is automated and controlled. When I use machines, I like the fact that I don't know at all what will happen. It's funny to say that, but for me, it's a true relation between man and machine: there's something unpredictable, spontaneous, that makes the creation much more alive because at this precise moment only the body truly expresses itself, much more than when we are in front of a computer during hours. It the same thing in analogue photography. When I use my analogue cameras, I take pictures without knowing what they will look like. I enjoy the fact that it's more natural, more spontaneous, and unique because there's no trial picture. In addition to the usage, I always enjoy the relationship with the objects because they will last in time. They have a soul because of the way they were made, because of their history, their aesthetics, it's like a piece of antique furniture. I like to take care of these tools and which have an important place in my workspace and my life.

To create the special edition of the Lomography Simple Use, you were inspired by your latest EPs and album art. Could you let us know more about why you wanted a holographic design on our analogue camera?

I find this material very fascinating. It makes me think of the effect produced by glass prisms interacting with light and decomposing the spectrum of colors depending on their inclination. In reality, we are not often in front of this kind of element, but once we have it in our hands, it's very beautiful and fascinating. I thought it was interesting to combine holographic material with a camera, there's even more life and magic to it.

What do you like about the Lomography Simple Use and of the LomoChrome Metropolis film preloaded in your special edition ?

I was impressed by the quality results of the great number of pictures that I took. The quality is much higher than on a regular disposable camera. The viewfinder is much bigger and the fact to be able to reload the camera with any films literally changes its use. And we must not forget the set of color filters which brings new possibilities when taking pictures with the flash. There are very nice surprises when you get the film developed from the lab! I also enjoyed a lot the LomoChrome Metropolis film, it offers a supplementary charm to the pictures with a very unique grain and colors like I've never seen before.

Light seems to be at the center of your creations, could you tell us a bit more about this element?

In fact, there's no photo without light. And light can sublimate an image when it's well controlled. There are so many things to explore with light because it highlights all sorts of textures, colors, shadows, and so on. It's part of the photography essentials.

The Lomography movement has 10 Golden Rules, which one suits you best?

"Don’t worry about any rules". The most difficult thing and the most important thing is to have confidence and to be honest, because we need a world where everyone can truly and creatively express themselves without bothering with what people think. There are no rules in art, only the energy implied in creating matters, and the feelings will only matter in the end.

What are your plans for this summer? Would we have the chance to hear you play somewhere?

Shows are progressively coming back, I will announce some dates soon. And I'm planning a tour on different continents in 2022.

Thanks to Darius for taking the time to answer the questions we asked him on the occasion of the launch of the Lomography Simple Use Darius.

To know more about Darius, please visit his website or follow him on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. To discover Darius' photos, go check his special Instagram dedicated to his images. Don't hesitate to visit the website of his label Roche Musique and of his management Divine.

written by florinegarcin on 2021-07-07 #news #people