The Parisian photographer who documents scenes and subcultures with grit, realism and a whole lot of love.
Melchior Tersen never really set out to be a photographer. At high school his major love was heavy metal. He and his friends would head to all of the shows in their matching Slipknot hoodies, and hang around afterwards to meet the band. Tersen started bringing along his small digital camera and before he knew it the musicians were adding him to the guest list and inviting him in to shoot the gig. “I got into photography without really knowing that I wanted to do it as a job,” he explains. “It was really instinctive. Over time it became my thing.”
But for somebody who fell into the shutterbug game he’s doing a stellar job of carving out a reputation for a certain kind of honest reportage that’s finding favour with his metal head family and the high fashion world alike. “I try to be sincere in my artistic approach,” Tersen says. “I don’t move things around, nothing is staged, it’s more about the story, the context.”
“I got into photography without really knowing that I wanted to do it as a job,” he explains. “It was really instinctive. Over time it became my thing.”
The story can be anything from French football’s hooligan aesthetic to sex industry trade show culture. “Generally when I create something, there are obviously unconscious influences but I always try to capture new things that I feel are captured very little, or not at all,” Tersen explains. He is endlessly prolific with a DIY attitude, having self-published six books and zines in 2017 alone. But the work that Tersen’s most proud of is his 2016 book titled “Killing Technology”. Edited by Headbangers Publishing and art directed by Etude Studio, it’s a dewy eyed ode to the metal scene and its plethora of patch jackets. “I started the project in the most total amateurism and it materialised in a really beautiful way,” Tersen recalls. There was a launch party at Colette in Paris; “I signed a book for the lead singer of Metallica live on television at 8pm,” Tersen exclaims.
2018 already looks set to be busy for Tersen. He has plans for a new book that are currently top secret, exhibitions across France and his first show in New York. And the fidgety photographer certainly isn’t short of ideas. "I would love to make a book on tourism t-shirts, old and new,” he explains. “And on a more ambitious level, I’d love to open a space in Paris. It’s a beautiful city but it’s been asleep for decades. The pool of talent is huge in France. I want to create a proper “turn-up” space - warm and also serious with a little garden where cans cost a euro and you can see something nice. That’s my dream.” Something tells us it might just become a reality.