Baptiste Riethmann is a Swiss-born, French-speaking photographer who has travelled the world and is currently living in Mexico City. There, he runs a small coffee shop and cafe, where occasionally he exhibits his collected images on the walls. And he admits he’s starting to get itchy feet again.
“I came to Mexico for first time in 2006 with my bike and a book to learn Spanish but I left my camera in Switzerland (the most stupid thing I’ve done in my life). I felt in love with that country, with that culture. It’s so full of contrasts! I have returned twice and now I’ve been living here for four years (and begin to miss travelling).”
Contrast is in plentiful supply in Baptiste’s images. Dark, moody and still, his compositions are rich in delicate details, but filled with strong forms and punctuated by bright colours and gritty textures.
He also admits that TheDarkSideOfTheRoom was probably not the best choice for the name of his photography biz, but says it was chosen because he was listening to a Pink Floyd track on the radio at the time.
“I had never sold any photography before but when I exhibited my work in the coffee shop, many people told me they liked it. My girlfriend told me about Etsy so I opened a shop on January 2013 (and sold my first picture three weeks later). Like many artists I would like to be able to live from my artistic work, but for the moment there is still not enough opportunity. At the moment I have the coffee shop and in the past I had various jobs – I worked in a hospital, in carpentry, archaeology, in a ski station and many other things.”
As a self-taught photographer, Baptiste is wary of identifying other photographers whose works have been a direct influence on his own, although his list of those he admires is long. “I don’t want to copy the ideas from others so I don’t really want to know who or what inspires me, I’m afraid to lose my creativity! But in photography, my favourite artist would be William Klein, I love his black and whites and the graphic concept of his pictures but what I admire depends a lot of my mood.”
“One of my favorite pieces of work is a series of five photographs showing a child and a trash can in San Cristóbal de las Casas (Chiapas, Mexico). It was the end of the afternoon and I had only five pictures more on the negative film. I sat down and began to think about how my eyes were influenced by my Swiss culture. I saw that this trash can that wasn’t in its right position and thought I was probably the only one disturbed by those kind of details. I took a picture of it to remember that idea and suddenly the child appeared and put the trash can back in its vertical position. He just completed my thought and I realized that each moment of capturing those images has something so magical, you’re totally present and that can transform the reality.”
You can find more of Baptiste’s work in his Etsy Shop, DarkSideOfTheRoom.