1. Can you tell a bit about yourself and about your practice? What's your main interests?


My name is Marc Elisabeth and I am a visual artist, born in 1992, currently based in Amsterdam. I’m mainly focussed on daily life, constantly aware and always on the lookout, craving new potential images. Searching for the absurd, but not exclusively. I see myself as a collector and I use the photographic medium as a tool to collect. That’s why I call my work ‘collections’ instead of projects. Lately I’ve been inspired by garden statues. I’m not sure where I’m heading with it though, but it energizes me.


2. There is only one project available on your website at the moment, but you also have a quite big CV. I suppose there were more projects. So were there any changes in your personal style, your attitude towards photography? And what's the difference between your works before and now?


There is no big difference between how I used to work, and how I work now. It has always been an extreme version of my daily life. A combination of the real Marc and the persona. The reason I don’t have a lot on my website is because I’m a bit selective, and like to keep things for myself. Most importantly, I like to show most of my work offline.


3. Your recent works are super playful and fun. You also describe it as "a quest to embrace the inner child". Did you ever experience any difficulties with having fun with photography instead of making dead-serious works?


Yes, the photography world is way too serious sometimes. I feel there is a lot more freedom of expression when you look at music or painting, for example. Maybe the difference is that you ‘take’ images with photography and ‘make’ music. People always expect something in return when you take.


4. How's your working routine look like? I mean how do all of these images pop up? Do you plan in advance what you wanna shoot or everything is improvised?


The closest I get to a routine is that I try to create at least one thing, every day. Sure, I plan a lot. Being in control is something I like, but that’s not how life rolls. When life gives me lemons, I take a picture of the lemons, I guess.


5. Your work seems to be balancing between documentary and performance. What do you think about constructing, staging certain scenes for the sake of images?


I prefer creating a scene or framework wherein surprises could occur. There’s always a fantasy about an image premeditated and polished in my brain. Those usually never work out in real life.

Creating images together and thereby blurring the, often hierarchical, relationship between photographer/director and model is something I strive for.


6. It seems that you are working with analogue cameras. I can imagine that sometimes the result of the image can be disappointing when you see developed films. It also can be disappointing if you aim to improvise and "live in the moment". What's your reaction when some ideas don't come up in the ways you want it to.   


That’s part of the game when you shoot on film. Living in the moment is nice, but history tends to repeat itself, so I always have a second chance. Better not fuck it up next time. 


7. About fun and play. What is the role of the viewer in your project? I mean, do you have any expectations from the viewer?


I don’t. My parents have a huge print of my spaghetti image in their kitchen and when my aunt saw it, she did this fake-vomit-act of disgust. She doesn’t understand why my parents have it there. I think she hates it. She’s a pretty tense woman, but I like her and I thought that was a funny moment. Everyone can think or say what they want, I’ll do it my way anyway.