“I don’t always know what I’m about to make or where it might lead. The closest I come to certainty is the medium I start with and the spark that ignites my process. While I tend to overthink, I’ve learned to trust my intuition and embrace the unknown.

Through photography and film, I explore desire, traumas, and sexuality. My time as a model and actor left me feeling as though my body had been hijacked—used not for my own self-expression, but to conform to societal ideals. That experience shaped a new narrative.

Self-portrait has helped me reconnect with myself, reclaim my body, and sublimate parts of the anger and libido I had long repressed. It instilled a profound sense of inner reliance.

A fantasy is a mental construction that can serve many roles—fulfilling unexpressed urges, shielding the self from deeper truths and anxiety, or grappling with repressed emotions—but it also can divert attention from one’s true desires and needs.

I share my work when I feel it resonates beyond the narrow confines of objectified sexuality and exploited desires. I don’t avoid these themes; I challenge them. Sex is too easily reduced to a performative act, stripped of its deeper essence. My aim is to explore what we deem taboo, along with the obsessions and fears we attach to it.”

Born in Châteauroux, France, Matthieu trained at the European Drama School, Cours Florent, in Paris. He’s made his mark in independent and international cinema with films like Bad Bunny, which premiered at Cannes, and Name Above Title, earning him a CinEuphoria Award for Best Actor. His modeling work includes collaborations with Frank Ocean, Pierre et Gilles, Ricardo Gomes, and features in Out, V, and i-D. As an artist expanding into filmmaking, photography, and mixed media, Matthieu’s work has been exhibited at art galleries such as envoy enterprises, La MaMa, and Empirical Nonsense. He is based in New York City.