Olivier Defaye, born in Caen in 1973, studied architecture at the École d'Architecture et de Paysage in Bordeaux. In 1999, he co-founded AOKIStudio in France and Japan with his brother Christophe Defaye and 2 other partners, a studio dedicated to 3D animation and special effects. In 2017, he created Films pour enfants, a non-profit organization aimed at offering children quality short films. In 2020, Olivier founded the film distribution company Les films de Tokyo, with the goal of introducing French audiences to hidden Japanese gems.
As Artistic Director at his animation studio, Olivier loves photography because it allows him to capture moments he feels reflect the particularities of our era. With a particular focus on the city and the ways we inhabit it, photography is, for Olivier, a way to nurture his curiosity and explore new visual worlds.
Twenty-five years of creating computer-generated imagery, fictional 3D worlds, and image retouching at AOKIStudio, along with a growing sense of excess in the staging of photos and AI images for social networks, now lead Olivier to privilege the daily experience of places and encounters, using photography as a tool for aesthetic introspection — a tool that, starting from the simple, ordinary things of our daily lives, perhaps allows us to live poetically in the world.
Olivier develops in particular the theme of solitude — that of human beings, but also that of objects, objects that seem removed from their nature, that should not be there at that precise moment, unusual presences. A form of solitude too for certain natural phenomena, such as rain, which suddenly finds itself in the city in curious and singular configurations.
Olivier greatly enjoys sports and takes the opportunity to create sports photography, such as Basque pelota.
Tel: +33 6 14 09 67 13
olivierdefaye@gmail.com