Le Photographe — About Joachim

Joachim Lombard

Photographe — Paris & New York City

Joachim Lombard has been photographing the streets of Paris and New York for thirty years. He taught himself shooting and darkroom techniques in the mid-nineties while studying film at NYU — a beginning that was entirely self-made, entirely on his own terms. He photographs once a week, on film, with one camera and one lens. He does not photograph anywhere else.

His admiration for visual artists is wide and specific. Among photographers: Brassaï, Kertész, Gruyaert — and above all, Josef Sudek. Among painters: the Dutch, Italian, and Spanish masters of the Renaissance. He is particularly drawn to the Chiaroscuro technique — the dramatic interplay of light and shadow mastered by Rembrandt, da Vinci, and Caravaggio. You see it in every frame he makes.

Pentax K1000 50mm lens Kodak Tri-X film 35mm · Black & white Since 1995
Sa philosophie — His philosophy
L'Argentique
Film
One camera. One lens. Thirty-six frames per roll. Each click is a dollar — and a decision. I have used the same Pentax K1000 for thirty years. I know it well enough to trust it in unknown territory, to make it do things it was never supposed to do. There is always a chance factor with film. You do not fully control it.
"Constraint is what makes me creative."
La Solitude
Solitude
Solitude is universal. It binds us. We are all confronted with it, and we spend our lives finding ways to escape it. An artist's life is made of a great deal of loneliness. It seems to me that all good photographs tell a story about solitude — the question is only how the photographer chooses to express it.
"I do not consider this sad. I consider it honest."
Le Temps
Time
I shot images twenty years ago that I did not like at the time. I now realize they were good. If they had been taken digitally, I might have deleted them the same evening. The photograph needs time. The photographer needs time. Editing — selecting from your archive, telling a story, building an identity — is the most important skill in photography.
"Only time says what is truly worth remembering."
Paris · New York
The Two Cities
When I am outside these two cities, I do not photograph. Photography requires a very specific mindset — everything becomes: is there potential here, with this light and these shadows, to create something elegant? I know Paris and New York very, very well. I do not need to discover them. They are an endless source of inspiration precisely because they are not new to me.
"Paris is nostalgic. NYC is chaos. I love them both."
Critique — Critical voice
"There's a sense of rebelliousness in Joachim's work. Sticking to the classicism of analogic equipment is defiant in today's Instagram world. But what comes out foremost in his photos is a deep sense of loneliness."
— Elena Micheli, Italian art critic
Joachim has always forged his own path — in life and in photography — avoiding mainstream norms not out of political conviction, but because he finds what happens at the margins more interesting. His decision to work exclusively on film, in a world of instant digital gratification, is one quiet act of defiance among many. When you regularly step away from the crowd, you walk a distinct and lonely path. It leaves space for feeling, for imagination, for a rich interior universe. This is what gives his work its character.
Sa voix — His words
"Photography is like a good sauce dish. You have to resist the urge to dig in and let it rest to make it tastier. Only time says what is truly worth remembering."
— Joachim Lombard
"Time and solitude are the two most important aspects of this art form. Technique is very, very secondary."
— Joachim Lombard
"Allowing chance to take control."
— Joachim Lombard