Bernard Testemale

Born in 1958 in Soustons, Bernard Testemale is a French photographer.

When he was just a kid when he received a camera which brought along a true passion. A fan of surfing and traveling, he left to discover the world and did many jobs. In the 90's, surf was right at the top of his list and therefore he participated in his mediation by taking pictures of several competitions and aquatic areas. He collaborated with several surf and travel magazines, leading him to become "the go to" person for surf pictures.

At the beginning of 2000's, his digital photography led him to do many magazine covers. However from then on, Bernard Testemale turned towards ancient processing method, dating back to 19th century. His portrait series are realized in Collodion. This technique is extremely complex, as it requires the artist to have knowledge in chemsitry and needs time and patience from him and the model.

Risky work with no certainties as for the result, Bernard Testemale appreciates this aspect as it's a true challenge to organize and create photos of the surfing world with such an ancient process. He realized a photographic documentation called "The Big Wave Riders Of Hawaii", which became a reference, and is considered to be one of the most comprehensive projects of the last decade.