After cooking, sewing, baking, baking, shopping, small plastic bricks… M6 fell in love with a new hobby: photography. This Wednesday at 9:10 p.m., the channel is broadcasting the first episode of The perfect picture, the adaptation of a successful Dutch programme. Six celebrities will compete in animal, sports or historical portrait photo events and will try to achieve the shot that hits the mark, the one that we can watch “again and again”, describes presenter Stéphane Rotenberg in the credits. The key to this contest? A gain of 10,000 euros for the association supported by the winner and the publication of his work in the magazine National Geographic.
“Today more than ever, photography is the favorite pastime of the French,” explained Pierre-Guillaume Ledan, Deputy Director General of Programs during a press conference in mid-July. We are all a little bit of a photographer because we all use our phones every day. For this premiere on French TV, the channel wanted to make it a program that was as instructive as it was entertaining. “It was a shoot of fun and happiness, a program where we will learn things but where we will also have fun,” added William Lebugle, Deputy Director General of External Flow Programs.
“We tried to be very benevolent but still very picky”
The first tests of the competition? Immortalize one of the animals from the Thoiry zoo in a photo safari style and create a portrait in period costume. Exercises to which Adriana Karembeu, candidate for this first season, complied. “I wanted to know if I was capable of doing it and I loved shooting this show. It wasn’t like a shoot but like a game between friends and I learned a lot of things,” she explains. For tennis player and presenter Alizé Lim, it was also an opportunity to understand the difficulty of this profession. “On vacation we sometimes have the impression of being a bit of a photography enthusiast even if we don’t have a hint of knowledge. But when you find yourself with a camera instead of a smartphone, it’s quite scary”, she admits, also praising the “incredible atmosphere” of the shoot and “the team spirit” between all the candidates.
Competitors who are not totally released into nature since during each challenge, a specialized photographer gives them advice on how to improve the setting, choose the right lens or adapt to the light. At the end of the event, everyone chooses what they consider to be their “perfect photo”, then it is up to the jury composed of Renaud Corlouër and Aline Deschamps to determine the winner. “We tried to be very benevolent but still very picky about the composition, the details, the photographic process”, specifies the documentary photographer.
Renaud Corlouer, who has drawn portraits of big stars around the world, says he was “very pleasantly surprised by the motivation of the candidates, their constant good humor and their desire to learn and succeed. We were quite surprised by their technical performance. It was both playful and extremely serious and professional. »
“Their advice was important during these events, recognizes chef Michel Sarran, who did not hesitate to put himself in Napoleon’s shoes for one of the challenges. They were cash, we thought we were doing great things and they showed us by a + b that it wasn’t that good, but all that in an extraordinary good mood. »
“We put a little more emphasis on the tips”
Beyond the competitive aspect, the program is also intended to be rich in advice for viewers. “Compared to the Dutch version, we have put a little more emphasis on tips and we are lucky to have a jury of caring professionals who also have a thirst for transmitting, estimates the Deputy Director General of Flow Programs external M6. They give advice to optimize our way of doing things, of framing. We obviously wanted our viewers to be able to learn things as well. »
For producer Pascal Guix, launching such a program is “courageous” on the part of the channel: “I can never thank M6 enough for having dared to go on an adventure with a new format and a new theme to explore. It was the right time because now everyone is a photographer thanks to social networks and smartphones. I think there is a real expectation on that side and we are happy to offer it. It’s like with cooking, you can imagine anything and do anything”.
Will the show have the same longevity in France as its eight seasons in the Netherlands? In any case, the channel wants to install this program permanently and explore all the facets of photography.