Jim Lind Photo

Known as the “French (Re)touch,” Christophe is shaking up the advertising world with his amazing talent as a retoucher. Although he is based in France, I was able to get in touch with him recently to talk about his background, his studio, and the future of advertising. I was equally impressed by how fluent his English was considering I couldn’t talk myself out of a cardboard box with French (or any other language for that matter).

Jim Lind: You are the Managing Director at the Asile Retouching Studio. How does working under a studio compare to freelancing?

Christophe Huet: Both have their advantages and disadvantages. From my point of view, I have always preferred sharing my time and work with other people. The great amount of confidence I have with my team allows us to share and progress together, better than each of us working alone.

JL: Does working for a studio provide health care and a retirement plan or is that something you must get yourself?

CH: As I’m the boss, I pay for a special social insurance and my employees have another one. In France we are all well covered in case of health trouble.

JL: What got you started in the advertising business?

CH: I preferred montages of complicated compositions rather than beauty retouching (even if I did a lot of them when I began). And usually, it concerns ads and not editorial. That’s the way I started in the advertising business.

JL: Do you have a background in photography or did your knowledge of it develop as a result of being interested with the retouching process?

CH: I started out interested in music as I pursued it at university. However I realized that drawing interested me more. My background as a printer and lab technician got be interested in photography and ultimately retouching.

JL: Many of the images require composites of other scenes and objects. Are you provided with all the materials needed to complete an image or do you photograph all the missing links?

CH: I always expect to have all the materials needed, but it’s not always the case. Then, my best friend is my Canon 5D Mark II and my personal image bank.

JL: How important is 3D software in your line of work?

CH: It’s quite new. I’ve been working with a 3D operator in my team for the past 8 months. Little by little, it becomes more and more important and still remains very interesting.

JL: Would you say that clients (more often than not) provide specific ways they would like the final images, or do they allow artistic freedom with the images?

CH: Sorry for this answer but it really depends on the situation. Although, I can say that it’s rare to have total freedom.

JL: It must be difficult to consistently be creative. Are there certain blogs, websites, or magazines that you use for inspiration?

CH: Not really. The most important thing to me is to keep an empty space in my mind to avoid any saturation of situsations or images. This is teamwork (Art director, the photographer, me and sometimes my 3D operator), so my creativity is not too important. And through that teamwork, the best images happen when our egos are put aside, and everyone pushes each other to do the best possible.

JL: Is there one project or campaign that you are really proud of?

CH: Proud is not the word I would use, rather I feel satisfied when I know I’ve given my best to enhance an image as far as possible. It’s a very comfortable feeling to work on a good project with nice people. This leaves me peaceful.

JL: In this economic downturn, are clients looking for safer campaigns?

CH: Yes, I think so. Actually, it’s a strange period and most of what happened before, is happening now but in a different way. It’s quite hard to explain.

JL: As an aspiring retouching artist, what is the best way to break into the business? Are there any specific steps you would recommend taking?

CH: Work with many people: photographers, agencies, advertisers, models or whatever, and show your motivation, not your ego. Be involved but keep your distance with the result. What is more important is the effort you give, or put forth of yourself, not what you receive in the end. Respect others and you will be respected. But beware, in the ad agencies, most of the time “money” is the only word that gains respect.

One of the most important things to do is to know “who” we are and “what” we are. Also we need to keep a space in our head to think about life and to find simplicity again and again. If you are creative, try to express yourself with honesty, void of any censorship, far away from any ego value. The best creative people are those who are like a paintbrush in a the hand of a mystery bigger than us (the mystery can be God, life or whatever you believe in)

JL: Thanks Christophe. I can see you really hold tight to your values. Keep making awesome images.

You can check out more of this work on his website.