Why do you center your work around ideas of distortion, perception, and manipulation of identity? Do you seek to capture the experience of alienation we feel in the post-digital era in which we all carry various online and offline personas, or is it something greater?

I don't know if you feel this way, but when I'm outside or spending time with friends or family, I feel like myself, but that I wear different faces. We have multiple personas that adapt to different situations. I’m never exactly the same person with everyone… but I find that person is always me.

My projects begin with this idea that no one is the same person around everyone or in all situations. In the photos where I clone myself or people into multiples, I can depict the complicated thoughts and feelings within our own heads, as if I’m portraying the visual vision in which we think. Across my photos, there are dozens of different versions of myself, each with their faces removed. This facelessness means we are able to speak to each other and hold dynamic conversations. I like this idea of being able to talk to myself in a picture. I always have an image in mind before I capture it, but afterwards I like to reflect, why? Why did I decide to capture myself like that? Why was I so obsessed with that particular subject? I think the answer is that I never see myself completely in any one of these personas, yet I know that it’s myself every time. I don’t shy away from any of my many faces.

So when you look at your images afterwards, you’re watching conversations unfold?

Yes, I’m obsessed with people’s minds. One day I want to hold an exhibition where people hold varying conversations with holograms of my image. Each persona will wear the same dress, but our conversations will be entirely different based on the person I’m speaking to, so that no two conversations will be the same. All I’ve wanted since I was really young was to talk to anyone about their interests, and to learn and understand from them. It’s not like I want to know everything, but I cherish the act of speaking with people about anything. I want real conversations with people because everyone is interesting and has something to say. 

And I even find it interesting when people don’t have much to say, because they hold back for some reason. It’s good to write down all the perspectives that other people have that I don’t. I have a list of thoughts that I’ve recorded from people I’ve met on the street and at parties, many of which I’ve never even considered. I will write it all down. It’s a bit crazy perhaps, but I think everybody’s crazy, even those who don’t allow themselves to be.

Why do you wheatpaste your photos around the city? Is posting your picture everywhere commenting on how we post images of ourselves online?

I took up graffiti when I was younger, tagging streets left and right. One day I decided that I didn’t want my photographs to only live on Instagram, so I began posting them all over Paris. My heart isn’t meant to exist only online, in a realm where everyone only thinks about themselves. I want my work to live where it can be for everyone. I want people to stop in the street and say, “Oh, I like that!” When you post your photos in the light, anyone can see them and they will speak to people in ways you will never know.

“Social” used to only mean the street. I don’t know why “social” now only refers to the Internet. It’s a word that means you can meet and listen to people, but social media is designed for you to speak, never listen. Artists hate social media because it destroys every part of sincerity.

It sounds like you're living a good life. Why do you approach existence with this mindset?

It’s an awareness that came about in the past few years. I developed cancer, and during that time I began to focus more on photography and my work. I think being so scared made me more honest. My brain didn’t work the same because I was on morphine and all kinds of medications, but nevertheless the only thing I had strength for was doing what I love. I was studying political science and law at that time, but photography was all I could muster to do, and so I dropped everything for art.

Everybody now thinks I’m mad, but I don’t mind. When you love what you do, you don’t really care what people think about you.