Concept
Olivier Roller (born 1972 in Strasbourg), is a French photographer based in Paris. He specializes in photographic portraits, and since 2009 he has been creating photographic frescos. The images are about figures of power, and portraits of the "emperors of today", which he confronts and compares to the faces of the past, from antiquity to Napoleon. After studying political science and law studies in Strasbourg, Olivier Roller became a photographer. He describes power and influence in France in the beginning of the 21st century, through the individuals who represent them (ministers, financials, advertisers, media leaders...)If the power is immutable, men of power are friable. [...] What is photographed is a changing power, pending, maybe disappearing. [...] The power is that dream to challenge time, knowing that time will be stronger. [...] The men of power knows what he lost Olivier's first portrait was of his grandfather in 1994, in a very tight frame and devoid of artifices. The image urges the viewer to go beyond the clichés of the portrait: to smile, stand straight, be beautiful. While he was still a student, he found his voice and a new means to communicate through Photography. To find faces to photograph, he approached many writers and filmmakers, who were promoting their work in bookstores and venues. This promptly lead to the press giving him assignments. While on assignment, Oliver followed Jeanne Moreau to a film festival in Belgium. Back in Paris, he contacted her to ask if he could photograph her, this time not for any specific reason. He wanted to move away from assignments, to instead photograph the subjects more authentically and more real. This photograph is now the cover of the book Visage by Bruno Chibane, gathering 20 years of portraits of assignments of Olivier Roller. In 2008, the Musée du Louvre gave him a carte blanche in the following terms "would you like to work on the equivalent of Sarkozy (French president) and Fillon (Sarkozy' prime minister), 2000 years ago?".
