Vincent Pérez is a true photographer, not because he studied this discipline in that temple which is the Vevey School of Photography, but because of his mastery of the portrait and the creativity of his mises en scène. An actor and director, cinema is obviously his preferred terrain. He has the advantage of an insider’s view, and share an empathy with the subjects he photographs. He hence manages to get actors to pose for him in a state of trust generally only granted to major photographers. Dance also fascinates him. He approaches this discipline differently, searching for the gesture and not only the gaze. For some years now, for marketing reasons, various institutions have found it interesting to pass off lm directors, musicians, writers and amateur photographers as great photographers. I’ve found myself caught out a few times, after rejecting several of these. But this is not the case with Vincent Pérez: with exactitude and modesty, he has slowly been developing a genuine collection of portraits. It was hence time to show his work, forgetting, for a moment, his acting fame. François Hébel