Iris De Feitjer: Do you, like Virginie, walk through life in high heels?

Marie Wynants: Well, no, but I feel like a MOROBÉ woman. Look at Virginie. She usually wears her heels very cool with, say, wide legged trousers. MOROBÉ

is rock ‘n’ roll. And that suits me. During the day, you can find me in green Adidas jogging pants with cowboy boots underneath, which I swap for high heels in the evening. It’s not my style to wear a chic dress with heels.



IDF: What is it that you find so strong about MOROBÉ?

Marie Wynants: It has a very sharp and clear DNA and yet it appeals to a wide audience: From the chic madams to the cool rock and roll girls. From my grandmother to my mother to my little sister, they all wear MOROBÉ. Which I find very unique.



IDF: You too have a distinctive style. How do you find the balance between your own signature and that of your client, as with MOROBÉ?

Marie Wynants: I’ve gotten to the point where most of the clients I work with book me precisely because they like what I’m doing. I do my best work when I have a lot of freedom to express my view of their world. Give me carte blanche and I deliver. For me, interesting clients are people with guts, like MOROBÉ. Too many brands take as their starting point what the consumer would like to see. Totally wrong, I think. Because the end result is mediocrity. As a brand, today more than ever, you have to stand out from the crowd. Because there is so much out there. A campaign for the summer doesn’t have to be on the beach. It can be sultry, it can be dark, it can be sweaty skin. Or you can shoot a swimwear collection in the snow for once. That’s what I’m looking for. A campaign should be a statement of what your brand is all about.



IDF: There is elegance in your images, but also a certain darkness. Where are the roots of your visual language?

Marie Wynants: At the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. From the age of 14 to 18 I studied there to become a professional dancer. In my pictures, bodies, more than faces, play the leading role. Early in my career, I often had my models wear very thin bodysuits, so that all wrinkles and hair disappeared from the skin. Sometimes I even deliberately hide faces because they communicate emotions in a very direct way. I prefer to use the body as the bearer of the emotion, which makes my images more abstract.



IDF: Going from dancing to photographing seems like a big step.

Marie Wynants: I was already very interested in the visual aspect at the dance academy. Styling, lighting and set design were very important to me. The movements themselves had to be really beautiful as well. I was very good at visualising a story. And I’m still doing that, but with photography.



IDF: When did you decide to change?

Marie Wynants: My original intention was to continue my studies at Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s P.A.R.T.S. dance school. But as I had just missed her biannually audition for the Biennale, I did a year of photography at Sint-Lucas in Brussels in the meantime. I loved it and stayed. For a long time, I doubted that photography was my path, because I ended up there by chance.

IDF: There are so many photographers out there right now. How did you have a break-through?

Marie Wynants: Firstly, with hard work and discipline, something I learnt in dance school. But also serendipity
helped. I had some friends in the music world. For example, Max Colombie, known as Oscar & The Wolf, and Bazart’s Mathieu Terryn. They were working on their debut album and needed photos when I was in my final year of photography. I did them. I grew with them as they became bigger and more successful. A few years later, in 2017, it was Delvaux who gave me my first fashion assignment.

IDF: You are best known for your fashion images and artists portraits. But more recently, you have also done a series of still lifes. Is this a new direction for your work?

Marie Wynants: The plates, glasses and bowls that the American interior designer Kelly Wearstler has designed for Serax are really something I have photographed


in a fashion way. I also approach my portraits in the same way as a fashion shoot. Between a commercial campaign, a magazine shoot of my own projects, there is no difference for me. I always like to do my own thing. And I always put in the same effort and time.

IDF: How do you prepare yourself for a photo shoot?

Marie Wynants: Maniacal. There’s not much left to be spontaneous on set. I draw up all the shots in advance of the shoot. I direct my models very strongly because I know exactly what I want. I really want to keep that kind of control. But because I work with a large team, this approach is also a must. Sometimes there are 20 of us on the set. There are stylists, set dressers, make-up and hair artists, people from production and lighting, and various assistants. Everyone has their eyes on me and the question is: what will we do? You only get the best result when everyone knows exactly what is expected of them.



IDF: Photography is highly technical. Are you a gear freak?

Marie Wynants:An eye is more important than the equipment. Of course you need solid equipment. But a good photographer can take good pictures with a mobile phone. I have several cameras. But when I travel, I shoot with my phone. The most important thing for me is the image. The technique is a secondary consideration for me.



IDF: You have an impressive track record for someone who became a photographer by accident. The result of meticulous career planning?

Marie Wynants: I have a go with the flow philosophy. At the dance academy and at Sint-Lucas I already had that. The main thing I wanted was to be creative. I wasn’t thinking about the long term at all. In the last one and a half years, that has changed. My work has really taken direction since I turned 30. I can be more rigorous and more selective about what I want to work on. I have a sense of what I am good at and my focus is on that. In the next couple of years I want to do more work abroad, especially in Paris, where I can work with very talented creatives.



IDF: What kind of assignment is still on your wish list?

Marie Wynants: A very big international perfume campaign, and a shoot for American Playboy, which has been successfully shaking off the masculine perspective since its rebranding. I would be really good at that because I am good with the female body. I can see a sensual, sexy and erotic shoot for me, but also very cool. And it would be shot with an all-female team.