A
Writers Madeline Rosene @madelinerosene & Tracy Kahn @tracykahn
t a young age, French photographer and videographer, Ludovic Nortier, was captivated by images around him. Before he could read, Ludovic was entranced by the billboards around Paris, interpreting their meanings. “Pictures don’t feed me,” Ludovic explains. “They make me hungry. I’m also a poet,” he jokes. Many years later, now Ludovic has worked on advertising campaigns for Diesel, Ralph Lauren, Disney, L’Oreal, Heineken, and a slew of other top brands and companies. His creative mind, vision, and ability to communicate with and direct his subjects lend themselves easily to video and photo content creation in both advertising and editorial scopes. He moved three years ago from Paris to Los Angeles where he finds the availability of various rich landscapes — city, mountains, ocean, and beach — highly inspiring. While building a network of creative types throughout Los Angeles, Ludovic continues to pursue his dream being a creative director, photographer and director.
LEFAIR: How did you start being a creative? LN: I started as a graphic designer. Before that, I wanted to be a professional soccer player. When they asked me at school what I wanted to be, I said I wanted to be a physical therapist. But some time during school, I created a blog with my friend. I did some retouching and photoshopping LEFAIR: So you got into the creative industry because of Photoshop? LN: I didn’t want to go to University so I went to private school in Paris. We call this Visual Communication in France. The first year you do art, you draw, you learn art history, and computer science. That’s what I did for a year. Then I specialized in advertising and graphic design. I started photographing when I was a kid. I was probably five or six years old. My first camera was a Christmas gift from my parents. My great grandfather wasn’t a professional photographer but he loved taking pictures. Maybe it’s in my genes. I got a camera and I shot everything all the time. It was film. There was no digital then. My personal touch as a five or six year old was to put part of my finger in each picture. Every time I got my film developed I was excited because you never
know what you’re going to get. It’s like getting a present and there’s no pressure as a kid. LEFAIR: What was your first job? LN: When I went to school, I worked three days per week and went to school two days per week. My mentors were many different creative directors of the agency, Publicis. I started to work with them as an intern in Paris. My goal was to work with them. So I did my internship with them. I progressed and became an assistant art director and then I became an art director. After this, I started working with Havas. LEFAIR: What is one of your favorite projects as an art director or a photographer? What is the project you’re most proud of? LN: I worked on a campaign for Heineken. It was worldwide. We spent so much time on it and you could see it on billboards everywhere. It was one of my favorites. It was while I was working for Publicis. I worked on many campaigns while I was there — L’Oreal, Garnier, Orange…The Garnier. There were some of my favorite projects. The hair, femininity, the beauty, those are the things I love the most.
LE FA I R MA G A Z I NE | 1 2 5
