Audrey Tautou is known for her role as the quirky and charming women in Amelie. Although this film brought her unexpected fame, she was always a photographer at heart. Audrey received her first camera as a gift on her first communion. As a child, she was inspired by the primatologists Dian Fossey. She longed to take photographs of animals in the wild and used her new camera as an “expression of her desire for adventures,”.
With the fame of Amelie, Tautou lost touch with her photographer side. She was thrown into global recognition- which we was totally unprepared for. As a means to regain perspective, she started photographing journalists after they interviewed her. “I needed to do it,” she says. “Maybe because of what happened to me with this huge celebrity suddenly — it was a way for me to take a bit of distance from the storm.”
This July the Rencontres d’ Arles photography festival will show Tautou’s work for the first time. These pieces include photos of interviewers from the press circuit during Amelie, as well as three bodies of work focusing on self-portraiture.
Her self portraits range from simple snapshots in mirrors, to more curated shots. For these, Tautou creates sets, props, costumes and perfects lighting as she becomes the photographer and the model. “Once I take the photos, I don’t retouch and I don’t change the framing at all. I don’t cheat on anything.” With the struggle to create a perfect shot without seeing herself in the frame, She explains that she has “made a double, which is exactly my size,”.
The show for Rencontres d’Arles will offer a glimpse into Tautou’s life as a photographer, and the side of her identity that has been changing over the years since Amelie. The show will be held at Abbaye De Montmajour, from July 3rd - September 25 in Paris.