With minimalistic stylistic means, Erizée's ‘Bloom’ series celebrates the metamorphosis from bud to blossom – a powerful transformation of model Alina Lee, from pale innocence to explosive femininity.

You work as a photography duo in Los Angeles, using the name Erizée. Where does the name come from?
Erizée is a combination of our both names, Eric and Alizée.

Erizée is also the name of your agency. What exactly does it do?
We like to call ourselves a boutique branding agency, and do everything from photography to video production and website design.

How did you find each other and how do your distribute the photographic tasks between you?
We met in Paris in 2011; and before we even knew we were both photographers we felt an instant connection. Eric was there from America to find success in France and Alizée was there from the south of France to find herself. We fell in love very fast after we met and got married in Paris 2013. It was only 6 years later in Los Angeles that we decided to finally work together and created Erizée. Eric is the photographer and director, and Alizée is the artistic director and editor.

What have you done in ‘Bloom’? What's the story behind it?
In ‘Bloom’ we wanted to talk about the power of women expressing themselves by “becoming” the fierce color red. Alizée is a bit of a feminist and enjoys showing off her power of being a woman.

Is the minimalistic work you've done with Bloom typical for you, or was it just a concept for this particular case? How would you describe your style?
I think minimalist is a good way to talk about our work. Eric and Alizée both love minimalistic art and architecture. It definitely shows in our work. Our style is definitely dark, luxurious, and minimalistic. But to be honest, for some of our client we have to get out of our comfort zone.

What happened with the styling and what made it special?
Alizée styles a lot of the shoots: it was her dream as a child to be a designer.  For this Bloom series she wanted to do something simple but clear to the eye. So she cut lighting gels and put them together on the model. For the white part she wanted something flat and sad but still beautiful, because women are beautiful no matter what, and started adding the red (power) as the series continued.

What's the thing about plastic foil? Do you often work with rather unconventional materials?
It was a first for us: we use gels on lighting but never as a piece of clothing. Alizée could have used a dress but it wouldn’t have the same impact. Using a dress would have brought story to the dress and less to the main piece. Now the model and the gel are one.

You have an S 006. What was it that made you choose this camera and what influence does it have on your photography?  Or was it simply the right system for your type of photography and, if yes, why?
We have tried every camera system out there, from all the big Nikons and Canons to Phase One, Alpa, Hasselblad and Fuji.  Leica seems to be the perfect medium for our work as the colors and sharpness are above all other cameras we’ve used.  On top of that, we have speed and usability.  But the main thing is the colors and this is very particular to the 006.  We owned a 007 as well and sold it due to preferring the 006 colors and files.  Since we work in situations where there is enough light or we add light, we never need anything above 100 ISO.  We are currently first on the list for the S3 in Los Angeles, so hopefully the colors of the S3 resemble the colors on the 006.  We are also very excited about producing video content with the S3.