Born in Tunisia, and having lived in France for 24 years, I moved in 1987 from Paris to Los Angeles. My background is in music. I studied composition in Paris and Los Angeles. In the US, I had the opportunity to score documentary and feature films.

I started taking pictures with the old Kodak Retina camera that my father had used during the 1950's. Manual mechanism – without automatic focusing and light metering systems – taught me the basic of photography. But it also gave me the feeling to actually compose a picture, like a music, instead of just taking it. It's the reason why I prefer to use a Leica film camera.

Using a computer to edit my pictures, I tend to avoid any manipulation which would have been impossible in a traditional darkroom. I impose this limitation on myself only to keep the picture as "real" as possible.

Photography, an art closely related to painting, transforms reality through a personal vision. It resembles the digital world, as it is a subjective representation of moments which will never exist again.

A link on the right side of this page (more...) will take you to more information about the pictures found on this site.

Prints of photographs can be ordered, framed or unframed. Write or call for information about sizes and prices.

Jean-Pierre Tibi