Rosser / Lebeau
Francois and Ben say “life is an intricate narrative that requires us to appreciate its depth and authenticity by embracing its genuine, spontaneous, and natural beauty.” By adopting a documentary approach, they focus on capturing spontaneous, realistic moments to showcase the raw beauty of life and evolved their friendship into a new photography business. I checked in with them to learn more now that Volume 2 is out.
Heidi: How did your friendship begin?
Rosser / Lebeau: It was in 2012. We were both new to living in NYC and learning how to navigate that place. Our paths were bound to cross because we were both in the photo industry already and avid rock climbers. We got to assist a friend at the same time, and we just got along instantly. We started rock climbing and sharing photo ideas, knowledge, and experience, and our friendship just grew from this.
Now that you are 4 years into this project, what surprised you about this new endeavor?
It surprises us that we’ve been doing this together for four years! Also, the reception of our service has been above and beyond our expectations. Our work gets in front of people who appreciate what we observe in the daily lives of the families we work with, which is very rewarding. To see that our initial vision and drive found their audience, we couldn’t ask for better.
As a team, we consistently reevaluate the business, asking each other what we could do differently to improve, which leads to a to-do list that we are tackling one by one. But as of now, I don’t really know what we could have done differently cause it’s been going quite well.
Ben’s photography career has some early influences from event, fashion, and celebrity photography, and François’s in the outdoor industry – how did both these influences inform your business?
The experience we were able to accumulate helped to mold how we approach our shoots with Rosser / Lebeau. When we met, we realized quickly that we had a very similar taste in photography. Being observant, and build the strength of a photograph through composition, light, and somewhat the decisive moment. In Ben’s career, there’s a lot of this that is applicable to get the best of his coverage or portraiture. Always need to be fully present and have a high sense of anticipation.
On François’s career side, it is practically the same, but just in a different environment. Planning the shoot around the best light, be there and ready for the unexpected, and being involved with the story itself to have a high sense of intimacy through the images.
All those tools, from our perspective, are necessary to allow ourselves to create what we want to create with Rosser / Lebeau. Working with kids is not easy, and it can go in EVERY direction imaginable. So when we decided to take the leap, we were well-equipped to start this endeavor. We’ve learned a lot since then, and that new knowledge pays back now in our solo careers too.
How do you complement each other?
Great question. Ben has a high sense of elevated imagery, due to his background covering celebrities, fashion, and events. Well composed, clean, and thoughtful. Ben always has good remarks on what makes a good photograph and how we can improve from one image to the next.
François, on his side, always loved the saying “imperfect perfection”. He often embraces being organic and in the moment, often pushing further in that realm to see through what people should expect. He is a firm believer there’s beauty in anything and uses it to his advantage when he creates.
On the business side, well, we learn together everyday. We definitely have separate strengths that when combined, makes those tasks easier too.
François is a father of two now, how is family life fueling that creativity? Do you think you’d take the same photos if you were both child-free? This is assuming Ben has kids….
Francois: I think having kids doesn’t affect much how I perceive things. At least for me. But what I understand way more is the value of those images we are doing for the families. When Ben gets to spend time with us in Colorado, he always carry his camera and shoots loosely. And ALL the images that he takes are SOOO precious to us. I cannot imagine how it is to receive a gallery of that caliber, without being used to be surrounded by quality imagery.
It just lines up with our motivation when we started Rosser / Lebeau : We wanted to create images that will last a lifetime and be passed to the next generations, instead of being a short lived creation that the nature of commercial photography is. And by experiencing it myself, it means a lot to have those images for our family.
In Volume 2 the images feel more intimate, and graphic – is this a reflection of you both feeling more comfortable in this new space?
Probably just the nature of putting the hours in. We have more opportunities, we met many types of families and people, and we also have the work we created that supports us. We are totally aware that it is very vulnerable to open yourself to be photographed this way, but when people embrace it and feel comfortable with us, that’s when ‘’the good stuff’’ happens.
How much time do you spend with the families, there’s spontaneity and intimacy to this work which is hard-won.
We allow ourselves to let things happen, so the classic 30 minutes session is not applicable for us. If we want to deliver the product and service we promise ourselves to do, a minimum of 2 hours is a must, but if we feel the energy is still there and thing are happening (or will happen) we will definitely stay with the family.
Do you both travel to the locations or is the work divided by location?
Definitely. We had inquiries from all over the continent and hoping that we will find a way to make it sustainable even on the international level. For families, we shoot them most of time solo. Ben being located in NYC will take care of the east coast, while Francois being in Denver will connect with the people on the west coast. Everything is interchangeable depending on availabilities, but it’s been working great like this. And for weddings, we tackle the coverage together. Having our style being very similar, it is nice to be working under the Rosser / Lebeau umbrella, and being able to trust each other with delivering images of the quality our company aspires to.