Joseph Elfassi - Multimedia artist & blogger

Joseph Elfassi is a creative artist who works in several media: photography, videography and writing.

Joseph's introduction to photography grew out of his fascination with women. When he was a university student, he bought a Canon Rebel XTi and began taking nude portraits of women. For a while he didn't want to admit he was a photographer, because at the time he saw himself principally as a writer. He still makes more money from writing than photography, but he was soon getting more comments for his photographs than for his texts. 

Most of Joseph's photography contracts are for journalism and events. All his creative photographs of women have been free photo shoots so far, but he'd like to start getting paid for these as well. When he photographs women, Joseph wants to show their beauty. He's looking for esthetic perfection. When he does photojournalism he wants to express the emotion of the moment or the event. 

Two photographers he particularly admires are Annie Liebovitz and Michael Helms, aka Pelicanh. He's also inspired by the esthetic focus in commercial photography. You can see Joseph's photographs at two web sites: DeviantArt and ModelMayhem. 

Joseph is also an active videographer. He's made a promotional video for a novel by escort Mélodie Nelson, and another to accompany Vanessa Cournoyer's report "Tout le monde aime la Compagnie Créole!" about Montreal musicians at BombeTV. Joseph produced videos for the recent Forum de la jeunesse in Tonnerre, France and he also makes short comedy videos. You can see Joseph's videos at his two online channels: TagTélé and YouTube. 

Joseph is passionate about writing, too. He write articles for Montreal magazines and screenplays for his videos. He also aims to be a successful novelist. He admits he used to write for shock value, but now he's more interested in the interaction among the characters in a story. He notices that his writing is influenced by his photography, with its focus on gestures and body language.

Joseph likes the writing of Chuck Palahniuk, who wrote Fight Club, and Vladimir Nabokov, the author of Lolita. Joseph has interviewed Dany Laferrière, winner of the Prix Médicis for L'Énigme du retour, and author of Chronique de la dérive douce, among other books. Go to Pieuvre to read Joseph's interview with Laferrière and other writing.

To explore all of Joseph's multimedia creativity, go to his blog and follow the links.