The 2 Minute Interview
Eyecandy makes eye candy. And this is how that works: Eyecandy are the crazy-creative photographers Fanny and Juliette from Berlin. Together, they create beautiful, colourful and tasteful things for the eye – eye candy, you see? So, you should have caught on to the name by now. Interviewing these two free spirits was quite a challenge, with them sometimes answering questions each on their own, sometimes in unison and sometimes one for the other. So much positive creative energy has to be let out into the world. In colour, ideally, as bright as possible. Or to put it in their words: eat, sleep, shoot, repeat.
Name: Fanny Böhme & Juliette Mainx
Age: 30/23
Home: Berlin
Profession: Photographer
Shoe size: 40/38
Favourite colour: all of them
Contact:hi@eyecndy.com
Colour or black and white?
Juliette: No doubt. Colour.
Fanny: Definitely colour
Why?
Juliette: The sum of all colours is black. So we have them all.
Fanny: Because we always stay true to our principles and strongly define our work over the colour. We want to stay nice and loud ;)
What does the inside of your head look like?
Fanny: Maybe one can picture it like a Technicolor wonderland made of paper art, flying objects, colourful liquids, broken rays of light and lots of fluffy, cuddly materials. At the same time, there’s an empty white room you get sent to sometimes.
Juliette: There’s a lot of chaos in my head. All the more reason to be glad that our visual language is so clear and minimalistic. So the pile of ideas and thoughts is turned into a very structured and neat picture.
What do you love about your job?
Fanny: The flexibility, the variety, the craft and the creating, that we have each other, the unlimited possibilities, our office.
Juliette: We do work a lot. There’s always something going on, we travel a lot and as soon as one project is finished, we’re already into the next one. But what Fanny said is absolutely right and I do get the feeling work and leisure are very close together.
What makes a good picture?
Fanny: My professor used to say: “Foreground makes a healthy picture”. Which is right, of course. It just doesn’t apply to our pictures. Our work is less emotional and more striking and graphical. “Symmetry is aesthetics for simple minds” might be more fitting then. A “good” picture can be defined by many parameters – a harmonious composition, a clear line, social criticism, sarcasm, complementary contrasts, having caught just the right moment, the authenticity, the surrealism. Whatever it is, the idea behind or the emotion in the picture have to captivate you in some way.
Juliette: Lame but true: the perspective.
The best photo of all times:
Fanny: Sandy Skoglund „Revenge of the Goldfish“ 1981 – an unbelievably artistic installation. Surreal, dreamy and at the same time slightly disturbing.
( http://goo.gl/uwRcce )
Juliette: I need to rewind another 20 years. From the 60’s: Jayne Mansfield in the heart-shaped bathtub. By Allan Grant. There is a whole series of her in her Mansfield Mansion. What really fascinates me is that it wasn’t staged, she really lived like that.
( http://goo.gl/cGhKBc )
What are you absolutely no good at?
Juliette: We’re both bad at arguing. At least with each other.
Fanny: A double somersault that ends in a handstand.
How do take a picture of someone who’s muxmäuschenwild?
Fanny: By letting him be himself and waiting for the right moment. If you find an emotional level, you can portray anyone authentically.
Juliette: The best place would be in our small, cosy studio. Somehow, everyone ends up feeling comfortable in front of our camera. Often with a bit of humour.
What can’t you get enough of?
Fanny: Good ideas, the sun and Juliette
Juliette: Pizza, pasta, ice cream. Haha.
What’s next?
Fanny: An #eyecandytrip and a grand exhibition with lots of bubbly.
Juliette: Exactly, we’re exhibiting our series “Don’t need it”, in which we photographed various Berlin characters together with objects they no longer need. We mainly portrayed musicians, Berlin greats, bloggers, artists and interesting characters. The objects are going to be donated to a good cause.
Which celebrity would you like to portrait?
Fanny: There are just too many. It goes all the way from Lily Cole to Jan Böhmermann.
Juliette: I’ve been asked that question a lot and there must be thousands of celebrities I’d like to photograph, but nobody in particular really. I’m less focussed on people and more on brands. I’ve always wanted to do a shoot for Swatch. And we actually did that this summer. I’m incredibly pleased every time I see the pictures.
What would you cook for us if we came to visit you at home?
We’d probably invite you to our second home, the “Schnitzelbrothel”: The Mutzenbacher. An Austrian restaurant in our neighbourhood Friedrichshain.
When was the last time you tried something new and what was it?
Fanny: A zucchini two weeks ago ;)
Juliette: I’ve been pursuing the motto ‚get out of the comfort zone‘ for a few weeks now. Just having a look at everything and trying to take a more relaxed view on things.
Last words:
Prost!
Photo: @eyecandyberlin
