Stéphane Hervé

« I see things »

I was born and raised in a small town in Bretagne, seaside in the west of France, sailors and gangsters, one record shop, and the most amazing second hand bookshop where I discovered the world of Gilles Thomas, William Gibson or HP Lovecraft. I grew up trying to escape my small town travelling to London, East Germany and starting my first hard rock band at the age of 15. My early passion for art, scared my parents who lead me to learn science and math at school. I finally moved to a bigger city and became a bar crawler sonne, and I got my first real job in Paris as a studio assistant. From a metal punk rock new wave kid I drowned into the world of jazz and chanson. I had the chance to meet Nick Cave, Barney Wilen, Tony Coe, Bob Geldof and ended to pervert my good friend sound engineer to sneak some of the French best metal band in the studio where recorded Magman, Bud Powell and Pierre Henry « L’évangile selon st Jean ».

Here came the 90’s, where a good friend of mine asked me to join forces as a journalist at Guitar World, I did my first interview with the Mighty Glen Danzig, one of my old time heros. I left the studio, started a new industrial band Prime Time Victim Show and started my own magazine with some of the best rock’n’roll teenage rock critics in town. R.A.G.E. was born. We lasted 7 years of pure guerilla rock critics were we travelled the world to meet the finest musicals of our generation. Along the way I had the chance to learn photography, one of my passion since I found my dad Playboy collection at the age of 12. Along the way I crossed path with Chris Cornell, Johnny Rotten, Dave Gahan, Jimmy Scott, Lou Reed, David Bowie, Chester Bennington, Robbie Krieger, Iggy Pop, and hundreds of legendary artists, writers, and beautiful misfits and outcast. I travelled the planet back and forth to meet magic, share moments and capture moments of joy, pain, and to fulfil my vision of the world. My magazine gone to the sink because of the usual business I freelanced for mist of the french music press but I decided to quit this shithole to move on to a different drection. In the late 90’s I stared a new music project with Australian singes Marc Yellin and I discovered the use of digital video camera. I always liked toys and that was a good one. I became a self proclaimed director and started to produce content for french medias as M6, France 2 or the edgy « Tracks » on Arte. I directed my first music video andsome short TV documentaries of the Chelsea Hotel, Tony Hawk or the mighty Dave Prowse (Darth Vador body!).

I moved to Los Angeles in the end of 1999 with my portfolio and started to work as a full time multimedia artist I shot Brian Setzer, Eminem, U2 and started the radio show Guerrilla Radio for Oui FM. I also stared my new band project with my brother Emmanuel Hubaut (Les Tétines Noires) and we got signed to Cleopatra in the US, worked with Paula Kendall (Mute) and became a part of the electroclash movement driven by Larry T. My nightlife at it’s best I started to be involved in the fetish, S&M, goth scene and documented many of it’s role play, uses and abuses. After a short year in the New York tornado in 2004, I gave up on the US and moved back to Paris to record a new album and start a long term with Nintendo, the company that made me lose so many hours of sleep for 25 years. Emmanuel and I soon escaped Paris to relocate to Berlin, an continue our rock’n’roll dream. The energy of the underground gave me some of my best photographic inspiration, and I followed the path of Ian Saudek, Anton Corbjin and Helmut Newton, my favorite photographers.

My love for the Japanese culture, and subculture pushed me to take the band to Japan and I stared to work with many models from the extravagant Tokyo Decadance crew. I dated the beautiful Misaki, a very famous mistress from Tokyo that got me deeper into the Japanese nightlife were I followed the path of Araki. Moving to Japan was too much of a drag for me, so I kept on going back and forth and ended up working in some of the best animation projects like Naruto hoping that one day I’ll cross path with my masters Katsuhiro Otomo, Miyazaki or Murakami Ryû. Back in Paris in 2016 after a very sad break up, I got lost in a downward spiral doing a lot of TV commercial, corporate shootings and losing my edge. It took me a few years to get my inspiration back and to clear my vision, I think I also suffered a lot from the torrent of new school photographers and artists from the social media. I had a son right before the first day of French quarantine, we put out our 20th anniversary record with Dead Sexy last year and I produced some of my best documentaries and music video since then.

My first book about my music years is on the way and I’m happy to feel that the fire still burns in me when I get in the zone to take pictures. I’m currently swimming into the pool of my actives, randomly waving at Yoko Ono, Johnny Haliday, Stan Lee, Michael Connely or my dear Michel Polnareff and I’m still wondering… where is that picture with Tom Waits. You got me so drunk old pal….

There is so much to share, to spit, to love being an artist, it’s hard, it’s fuckin hard, does not mean it’s not great and rewarding.

Have love, will travel.

CV Exhibition

Stéphane Hervé

Photographer/Multimedia Artist

Born August 11 1967 in st Brieuc FRANCE

Musician since 1982

Sort time pagemaker for Delegate and Creation respective in 1987

Studio assistant and sound engineer at studio Bastille and Studio Acoustic from 1988 to 1992

Journalist for Guitar World and Editor in Chief for R.A.G.E. magazine

Professional photographer since 1995 published in R.A.G.E., Guitar & Bass, Play Rec, Rolling Stones, Blast, Flaunt, Liberation, Elegy, NRJ mag, Virgin Magazine and various international magazine via DALLE agency.

Portraits and official pictures of artists as Iggy Pop, John Lyon, Michèle Polnareff, Linkin Park, Coldplay, Michael Connelly, Depeche Mode, Brian Setzer, Nick Tosches, and corporate pictures for HP, Intel, L’Oréal, Thomson…

Co-creator of the Oui FM radio show Guerrilla RADIO.

Director and DOP for Arte (Tracks) since 1999, directed programs and TV show for M6, France 2, and around 50 music videos for such artists as Indochine, Pitch Shifter, Medication, Michel Polnareff, Bluebird, Treponem Pal, Helena, Kent, KnuckleHead…

Director of « We had a dream » documentary for Agnes B (2004), »Putain de Stade » for Sony Music (2010) and « « Laisser Parler la mer » for La Nef D Fous (2020).

Official photographer for Nintendo Of Europe since 2008 including advertising for GameBoy, Wii, WiiU, Nintendo DS, Pokemon company and the Switch launch campaign

Producer of the Zelda Symphonic and Platoon European show.

Music career :

Founder of the electro punk band DEAD SEXY INC., 6 records release on Cleopatra, Universal Music, Enragé Prod, Pale Music, Euro Neko… 3500 live show including SXSW, CMJ, Printemps de Bourges, Lattitude Fest, toured in Japan, China, USA, Europe.

Composer of the Switch Trailer music Theme for Nintendo Europe, of the TV ad music forPokemon, Monster Hunter, Mario Kart…

DJ and producer for Aniplex of the compilation NON STOP NARUTO.

Exhibitions :

Gallerie Satellite (Paris)

S036 (Berlin)

Tokyo Decadance (Tokyo)

CentrePompidou « Manga »

Fantasiart (Lyon)

Gallerie Anges B (Paris)

Binic Folks Blues (Binic)

Sous Terrain (Maxeville)

Centre Vitreuse (Paris)