Philip Dumont's practice of photography started when he was twelve years old, thanks to a little Kodak camera given to him by my godfather. A few years down the road, his career began to develop. First, he went to the Louis Lumière School and then received his first professional photographing gig for a guitarist publication. He then worked with a gourmet foodie magazine by Gault & Millau. At the same time, he was doing commercials for several advertising agencies while starting to get into digital movies as a photography director for music videos, short movies, institutionals or corporate projects, etc. In his opinion, photography and film-making are closely linked. It's true the photographer doesn't have to worry about the 24/25 images per second rate. But the frame and the light in photography are two components that go hand-in-hand with motion pictures, just as colour correcting, a technical-artistic constraint, is specific to film-making. But that's a whole other story...
He doesn't just calculate anything on an a posteriori or the idea that this or that subject could please, His work is not centered around whether or not it will find buyers. His process goes like this: he sees, he frames, he shoots...it is part of this spontaneity that is essential to Dumont: freedom. It is the ability to act here and now. It is obviously different for the "staged" shots which are another part of his activity.
Dumont's influence is mostly drawn from the work of artists such as Renoir, Hopper, Klimt and Hockney, just to name a few. Filmmakers that are dear to his heart are Scorsese, Kubrick, Fritz Lang or Hitchcock. And of course, there are the prestigious photographers like Henri Cartier-Bresson, Willy Ronis, William Eggleston, Stephen Shore, Ernst Haas and so many more who inspire him daily.
