Olivier Defaye, born in Caen in 1973, studied architecture at the École d'Architecture et de Paysage de Bordeaux. In 1999, he founded AOKIStudio in France and Japan with his brother Christophe Defaye and two other partners, a studio dedicated to 3D animation and special effects. In 2017, he created Films pour enfants, a non-profit organization whose goal is to offer children quality short films. In 2020, Olivier founded the film distribution company Les films de Tokyo, aiming to introduce Japanese gems that are still unknown to the French public.
Artistic director within his animation studio, Olivier enjoys photography because it allows him to capture moments he believes reflect the peculiarities of our time. With a particular focus on the city and our modes of appropriation, photography is, for Olivier, a way to fuel his curiosity and explore new visual universes.
The creation of computer-generated images, fictional 3D universes, and image retouching at AOKIStudio over the past 25 years, combined with the growing sense of overindulgence in the staging of photos and AI-generated images for social media, now inspires Olivier to focus on the daily experience of places and encounters. He uses photography as a tool for aesthetic introspection—an instrument that, by drawing from the simple and ordinary aspects of our daily lives, perhaps allows us to live the world poetically.
Olivier particularly explores the theme of solitude, not only that of human beings but also of objects—objects that seem distant from their nature, that shouldn’t be there at that precise moment, presenting as unusual presences. There is also a form of solitude in certain natural phenomena, like rain, which suddenly appears in the city in curious and singular configurations.
Olivier greatly enjoys sports and takes the opportunity to capture sports photography, such as Basque pelota.
Tel: +33 6 14 09 67 13
olivierdefaye@gmail.com