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Call of the Wild by Agoria (featuring STS) from the album Drift - Director: Loïc Andrieu [Keynotes here]

Simon Chaudoir’s Surreal Behind-the-Scenes Photographs Do Not Require a Smile

To see more of Simon’s photography, follow @simonchaudoir on Instagram.

Don’t smile for the camera. That’s the first rule Simon Chaudoir (@simonchaudoir) imparts to the grips, gaffers and other behind-the-scenes characters that take center stage in his surreal, poker-faced photographs. When Simon, a London-based director of photography, began staging the photos — which he initially dubbed “Industrial Accidents” — they were simply mementos of his gigs. Now, his clients often are as eager to hear his ideas for the picture he and the crew sneak off to snap during their lunch break as the one they were hired to shoot. “Some directors and producers probably think, ‘Do I want to hire this guy, given that he seems to spend so much time on set arsing around?’” Simon says. “But taking a picture really cheers people up. It’s something beyond the work, work, work — a silly, joyous moment.”

#photography #behind the scenes #surreal #simon chaudoir #movie set #instagram

Juice by Chromeo from the album Head Over Heels - Directed by David Wilson

Stealing Moments on Set with @simonchaudoir

To see more playful portraits, follow @simonchaudoir on Instagram.

The Instagram photos of a fellow film director first inspired Simon Chaudoir’s (@simonchaudoir) playful, sometimes macabre, portraits. “For a long time I had the image in my mind of myself lying on a studio floor having been crushed by a falling lamp,” explains Simon, who leads a harried, globetrotting life directing music videos and commercials. “It expressed something that I felt about my working life. I realized that Instagram gave me the platform to explore such images."

With filmmaking equipment and backdrops at his disposal, Simon crafts jarring photos that draw from elements of Renaissance paintings, surrealist photography and the avant-garde. “Way, way, back I studied Fine Art,” says Simon of his university years. “This was the first time since then that I had the pleasure of producing something purely for my own pleasure and amusement.”

“Sometimes when I accept a job, knowing the equipment that's going to be used and the people involved, I've already conceived what the picture of the day will be,” he says. But the photos themselves tend to come together quickly. “All my pictures are taken in snatched moments when I am working for other people,” he says, “lunch-breaks, lulls in shooting or when we wrap.”