Wherever he goes, Maxime Ballesteros carries a camera, and whether he’s shooting a fashion editorial, or just snapshots of his friends and the landscapes he passes, he always adheres to a strict set of rules:
“Never use a zoom. If you have to get closer, use your body. Never reframe or crop an image. If it doesn’t work the way you took it originally, you just have to aim and anticipate better. And don’t take two frames of the same thing.”
The resulting images are characterised by rawness and gothic sexiness, and many are now gathered in Ballesteros’s first monograph, “Les Absents”, published by Hatje Cantz and produced in collaboration with Sang Bleu.
“Les Absents” will be launched alongside an exhibition of his photographs on the evening of July 5 at König Galerie, Berlin.

More information at: Hatje Cantz