Mathieu Rivrin

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Helen Summers

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Hi everyone. Many of you if indeed not all of you may not have heard of Mr Rivrin before. I hadn't until the other day. He is a photographer operating in Brittany and is a bit of a specialist in stormy weather photographs. Below is a link to his site. Many of his photos are in colour, but among them are some truly superb images in monochrome of stormy seas and the coast.

www.mathieurivrin.com

Mathieu Rivrin - Photographe de Bretagne

Parcourez les paysages de Bretagne vus du ciel, de la mer ou de la terre à travers les photos de Mathieu Rivrin, photographe professionnel en Bretagne.
www.mathieurivrin.com www.mathieurivrin.com
 
I think he has a very big lens hood. Also providing the wind is in the right direction.....I know he takes some of his shots from a helicopter. Though personally I would be far to scared to go up in one of those things at any time, let alone during a storm.
 
You might be forgiven for thinking that some of his images (e.g. Mont Saint Michel) are composites. Do I care. No I don't. If they are, some of the resulting images are spectacular.
 
I'm afraid that kind of photography leaves me completely cold. It's largely sort of latter-day picture postcard stuff, with a preponderance of rather oversaturated sunset and sunrise scenes. Its the genre that Fay Godwin, who was nothing if not a straight-talker, referred to as 'revolting'.
 
Oh come on Toby, don't hold back, say what you think;):) We shall have to agree to differ. I can forgive Mr R for many of those images. After all he is a photographer trying to make a living and needs to give the public what they will buy. Van Gogh didn't and look what happened to him.

The storm photos as far as I am concerned generally are excellent and the monochrome ones, of which sadly there aren't that many, superb. I have not seen a photo that captures the sublime better than the ariel photo into the light, of the storm lashing the lighthouse and coast at Belle Isle. Ideally I would have like to have pointed everyone to the storm photos, but as I am a bit of a Neanderthal with technology I could only manage a link to his site.
 
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Toby Webster said:
I'm afraid that kind of photography leaves me completely cold. It's largely sort of latter-day picture postcard stuff, with a preponderance of rather oversaturated sunset and sunrise scenes. Its the genre that Fay Godwin, who was nothing if not a straight-talker, referred to as 'revolting'.
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Toby, I feel exactly the same as you about these photographs. I can't connect with them, probably because the photographer himself didn't actually connect with his subject. It's just generic chocolate box stuff with no depth to it.....
 
I take it you guys don't rate Charlie Waite and Joe Cornish either then. Whatever, I remain unmoved by your comments and won't be changing my mind. For me those photos are well seen, well composed, well taken and well presented and I see absolutely nothing wrong with that. If Mr R's photos are not your thing that's ok, it is a good job we aren't all the same with our opinions:)
 
Helen, I agree with you when you say that Mr. R. is a very skilled photographer. And if you like his work, then good; go ahead and enjoy it. It does nothing for me, but I'm not saying that everyone should feel like I do about it. We all respond differently to what we see.
You mention Joe Cornish. He is local to me so I see a lot of his work. He is a highly accomplished photographer, very skilled; but he produces commercial work, to sell. Some people like it, but it doesn't hold much appeal for me. His view of my local North Yorkshire coast is too "chocolate box" for my taste. Chris Killip and Ian MacDonald have done a far better job of portraying what it is really like, in my opinion.
 
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I may not want to hang his work on the wall and I don't admire every this on his web site but I can't help but give credit for his skill in what he does. He has a eye for something different and and goes the extra mile to execute his ideas.
 
I suppose it's a matter of what you want out of your photography. Here's his "about" page, translated…

A professional photographer born in 1989, I have a strong attraction for natural landscapes or landscapes with a small human element. Since 2016, video has been added to my work. I look for particular types of light, which means getting up early in the morning and going to bed late at night to watch sunrises and sunsets, which are often synonymous with intense colours in the sky.

In February 2016, during storm Ruzica, a flight over Finistère and its lighthouses was the start of a wonderful adventure with images of lighthouses that went around the world. From now on, I'll do everything I can to repeat this adventure as soon as the opportunity arises.
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So, he is a lot younger than the other photographers that you cite and, rather than producing majority B&W documentary archives, his aim seems to be to earn a living. Here's a list of publishers of his work from his site…

Images are also regularly published for the SNCF, tourist boards and Hachette, as well as for foreign clients such as Lonely Planet, National Bank of Australia, Microsoft, Apple, Samsung, Saga Holidays, Al Jazeera Media and Mercer Bell.
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There's also the matter of available subject material. Like Joe Cornish et al, who used the stunning Yorkshire scenery, Matthieu chooses our equally stunning Breton coast, which we are so privileged to have - especially in times of storms, when the Atlantic Ocean comes to an abrupt halt against the durable granite that makes up our coast.

Believe me, it takes early mornings, late evenings, many kilometres driving, many hours planning and waiting to get the kind of shots he takes. Not to mention taking his life in his hands in helicopters or launching expensive drone cameras over the boiling sea.

Both Chris and Ian appear to be documentary photographers, recording times past in the photographic style of times long gone. Mathieu uses a photographic style which is, at one and the same time, documentary, landscape and dramatic.

I tend not to limit the kind of photography I can appreciate and would happily hang one of his images on my walls - that is, if I can find room for it.
 
I don't limit the kind of photography I like either, Joanne. But Mathieu's photographs simply don't do much for me.
And I think you are wrong when you say Chris Killip and Ian Macdonald recorded times past in the photographic style of long ago. Killip's work was contemporary. Macdonald's still is.
 
Helen Summers said:
I take it you guys don't rate Charlie Waite and Joe Cornish either then. Whatever, I remain unmoved by your comments and won't be changing my mind. For me those photos are well seen, well composed, well taken and well presented and I see absolutely nothing wrong with that. If Mr R's photos are not your thing that's ok, it is a good job we aren't all the same with our opinions:)
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Waites and Cornish do very little for me either I'm afraid, though I don't deny that they are good photographers with an eye for colour and composition. They, like Rivrin, give the public what it wants, I guess. If you Google 'landscape photograph images' you will get page upon endless page of exactly this kind of oversaturated pap, and probably start to very quickly feel rather queasy. I certainly do.

I spent a bit of time with Rivrin's storm images, and they left me by and large wondering how he manages to make something so incredibly dramatic appear so dull and unmoving. He just has the time and money to go to the coast during storms and pressing the shutter of an expensive Dslr equipped with a long lens and set at a fast shutter speed whilst the waves are crashing against rocks and lighthouses. I feel myself asking 'so what? Where's the art?'

If you want to see seas rendered beautiful I suggest you look up Rachel Talibart. For me her work is orders of magnitude more enjoyable - and technically far more accomplished - than Rivrin's.

All that apart, I find myself wondering why on earth you linked to a photographer dedicated mostly to rather lurid colour work on a forum dedicated entirely to monochrome photography! As you say, I guess each to their own.
 
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There is one marvellous photo that was winning awards a decade or so ago. It was taken from a helicopter, and depicted a lighthouse keeper holding the door of a Brittany lighthouse and looking up at the photographer as an enormous wave crashed against the opposite side of the structure, and looked sure to engulf him from each side within milliseconds. He looked so tiny compared to this vast force of nature, and one wondered if he'd managed to pull the door shut in time. It was undoubtedly one of the most dramatic photos ever published. If Rivrin was the photographer, then due credit to him. He'd certainly had to slay a lot of dogs on the way there, and seemingly on the way back.
 
Toby Webster said:
If you want to see seas rendered beautiful I suggest you look up Rachel Talibart. For me her work is orders of magnitude more enjoyable - and technically far more accomplished - than Rivrin's.

All that apart, I find myself wondering why on earth you linked to a photographer dedicated mostly to rather lurid colour work on a forum dedicated entirely to monochrome photography! As you say, I guess each to their own
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Ms Talibart produces beautiful stuff. Thanks for pointing me her her direction.

Unfortunately, in order to see the relatively few monochrome photos I wanted and hoped people would look at I had to point to Mr R's site as explained in my original post.
 
This thread is a great example of one of the (many) things I like about this forum - diametrically opposed views express in a mutually respectful and reasoned way.
 
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