Interview and behind the scenes video with Nicolas Bruno
I’m always fascinated by the work of other photographers, especially ones that have an interesting outlook or method.
I learned about Nicolas recently and was totally blown away with his photography. After digging around a bit while wanting to learn more about the man behind the lens I found this quick video interview with him above.
Chasing bad dreams
Nicolas Bruno suffers from sleep paralysis, a kind of waking dream scenario in which people are half awake and half asleep.
Because of this, he can often remember his dreams (and nightmares) with vivid clarity vs. the vague foggy recollection most of us have of our dreams.
He uses this clarity as a muse rather than a challenge, and harvests it to create remarkable images that have a dark, dreamy, and forbidding nature to them.
The execution of his images is perfect, and I think that is why I admire his work so much.
Whereas many photographers take photos of things they happen to see, Nicolas goes to great lengths to create photos of the thoughts in his mind.
Set and prop design
One of the things that really drew me into Nicolas’ photos was how much time and effort he puts into the design of his ‘sets’.
Using unique props in unique locations (like an old wooden bed in a freezing river) pulls your eyes into the image and makes it hard to look away.
The use of the bags over the heads, rope to bind them, and the blindfold creates a terrifying and desperate atmosphere.
Just seeing such creative and unique images like these make me want to grab my camera and immediately go out and create something new.
Nicolas often keeps a notebook by his bed to immediately write down what his dreams entailed, and even sketch them out visually to make reference notes for photo shoots.
A few other haunting images…
Learning more about Nicolas Bruno
To see more of Nicolas’ incredible work, check out his portfolio website, Facebook, Instagram, and Flickr accounts.
Do you enjoy posts about other photographers?
I always wonder if everyone enjoys learning about other photographers as much as I do vs. only writing technical tutorials. If you do, let me know in the comments below and feel free to also read the post I did on celebrity photographer Brian Duff, who was one of THE quintessential photographers of the 60s who shot iconic images of David Bowie and more.
Great story. Thanks for sharing.
I find this artistically and technically interesting, but the images are disturbing to me.
Loved this link with the documentary. Great to read about how the human conditions morphs into artistic expression. In this case out of the need to control the internal environment. Please keep posting this type of info.
That’s some amazing creations! Thanks for sharing
Intense & Creatively Shot!
Mike,
I truly enjoyed Nicolas’ story! Thanks for posting. It was an interesting story and I’m glad Nicolas found a way to expound on his nightmares, making them work for him in other creative ways.
Great post Mike!! Great learning from your posts as well!! Keep up the awesomeness and looking forward to seen posts like this.,,
We all suffer from sleep paralysis, as our reticular activating system shuts off as we fall asleep. For example, if you have ever fallen asleep only to be jerked awake by your body just as you dropped off, you experienced the RAS disconnecting. He is different from us because he is conscious of what is going on. Most of us can control our dreams, he can’t. It is a great source of inspiration, but costly for him I would guess.
Nice work on the documentary.
Great article, inspiring as well.
Yes, I absolutely like articles like this and I feel the same way, I want to go create something. The time and effort he puts in is incredible as are his images. Thanks for sharing!
Fantastic work. I think I need to start creative dreaming.
Thank you for the inspiring video.
How did Nicolas cope with the freezing river?
Cheers
Ron
Great article, very inspiring. Coming up with ideas for your photography, especially hobbyists like myself who have no clear purpose in mind for their art, can be daunting at times and these reviews help to stoke those fires. Thank you and do please continue with these types of posts.
Bizarrely inspiring.
I really enjoy the informative material you circulate. This particular dusted off inspirational piece arrived on my screen at a time when I’ve been temporarily overcome by lassitude in my photography.
My enthusiasm has returned and I’ve already planned my next landscapes.
Thanks for the motivation.
Totally amazing!
I loved this, and it’s coming in a time where I feel stagnated in my photography. It is fascinating to see what this artist does and I am blown away by his photography. And on a side note: I realise I’ve had sleep paralysis ONCE in my life and I will never forget it, but I’ve never had the words to describe what it was and didn’t know this exists. Now I totally understand what it was. Yes, I love to see how other photographers create their scenes and word with their ideas.
very inspiring, thanks a lot for sharing. seems like as a photographer I am always complaining about not being in the most beautiful place to capture images instead of being creative of what i have around!
I’m glad you enjoyed it Scott!
I agree Christopher. I think the fact that a guy with a camera can create something that creates a real emotion in the viewer (being disturbed in your case) speaks to his ability to capture his subject matter in excellent execution. Thanks for commenting!
Thanks for the comment BJ, I’m glad you appreciated this post. Its really interesting to see how others approach photography, especially for things like this.
I agree, you are welcome!
Crazy, right? I was out to dinner earlier and couldn’t get the ‘couch on fire’ shot out of my head – that is what we should all hope for as photographers with our viewers!
100% agreed Sista! Its always fascinating to me to see how other people utilize photography aside from just taking photos and cataloging their day to day experiences. This motivates me to get out of my comfort zone and really plan out a conceptual shoot.
I had no idea that is how this took place, thank you for sharing this with us Milton. I’m utterly intrigued by this type of thing and its really interesting to learn that we all do this but most of us just aren’t conscious of it happening. I can imagine it is very costly emotionally for him as you mentioned. I greatly appreciate your very insightful comment, thank you!
Thanks Carrie, I thought it was pretty cool!
Hi Terri, thank you for letting me know this is interesting to you as well. Seeing his workflow made me realize a few things I need to start doing in my own work.
Hi Ron,
I’ve always been interested in the idea of lucid dreaming, or at least working on being able to remember dreams. I’m glad you enjoyed the video! I’m not sure, but I assume he just had to deal with it!
I feel the same way Al. I get complacent sometimes with my own photography and need a good shocking jump-start like this to get my mind in the right place.
Right!?
I’m glad you liked it, it definitely isn’t for everyone! With that said, it sounds like you enjoyed it as well :)
Britta, thank you so much for commenting! I was feeling stagnated myself and this jump-started quite a few ideas for me as well. That is interesting that you’ve experienced this! Did this help explain more about it? I’ll make sure to feature more interesting photographers moving forward!
I find myself in the same situation Mahbub! This taught me to find ways to tell better stories vs. just capture what is in front of me.
The short documentary was well put together and very interesting, thanks for posting it. I think it is brilliant of Bruno to use his photographic skills to recreate his nightmares as both explanation for others and therapy for himself. Making the nightmares into reality in photographs must be of some use to Bruno as a way of making them visually stimulating and not so frightening.
This was a very interesting piece. This man is suffering and i can’t even imagine living through that. I’m glad for him that his photography can get him through the day. Thanks for sharing this with us.
This is fascinating, and I find the imagery astounding. I wish I could see how he does his post-processing…. Truly artistic !!
( and didn’t you wonder how he could do that series of photos in that freezing river??? ouch !!! )
wow! on so many levels. Very much enjoyed this!
I felt the same way Eddie! Its really interesting to see how he breaks down his shoots in advance with sketching them out on paper – I’ve never done that but can see how that would help set them up properly.
Hi Marty, I thought it was pretty cool to see someone using the photographic medium in a therapeutic fashion!
Good point Mary! No one else has pointed out his beautiful editing – nice soft tones that add to the images ‘dreamy-ness.’ I bet he was pretty cold in there! Whatever it takes to get the shot!
Awesome, I’m glad you liked it Jackie!
Absolutely fascinating! And the fact that he’s the guy IN the photos too makes it even more fascinating!! Thank you for sharing this! :)
Mike, I thought this was excellent! I am a mental health professional and have always loved utilizing photography, photographs and characters to assist in the therapeutic process-this brought it all together in such an amazing way. I would welcome more posts of this nature.
All the best and thank you!
Many thanks for sharing this post. Nicolas’ art and work encourages other to go on exploring knew methods as well as to go on trying to improve in photography. I’m glad you have thinking on me to send it. Also, I like learning from other photographers work.
Hi Sam,
I’m happy to hear you liked this as much as I did! Its pretty cool that manages to incorporate himself into many of the photos!
Hi Judy,
Thats really interesting to hear that you’ve used photography as well in this way! I’ll keep my eye out for more interesting articles about other unique photographers.
Sounds good MCarmen! I’ll make sure to share more of this type of content!
The pictures are awesome, and I enjoyed the video. It did get me thinking and coming up with a few ideas. Thanks for sharing.
Lary McCollum
Wow! His dreams outdo mine! It’s hard to imagine everything that goes into making his dreams into digital reality. That’s commitment.
Thanks Larry, he is a really talented photographer!
Do not send me ay nightmare photos.
Hi Glenie, I’ll make sure to remember that next time :)