Photographer Paul Rousteau's work is gloriously bright and cynicism-free

French photographer Paul Rousteau sounds like a nice chap – one with a bright outlook on life reflected in the bold pops of colour he adorns his editorial work with. “Being cynical is too easy because everyone has a lack of something”, he told Art Book Guy. “So I try to see the beautiful things in people, even if it’s a bit naive or even in a cynical way.”

Paul’s images take the editorial photography norms and mutate them into new avenues, with cues from collage and even set design shining through in his arrangements of models, props and colour. There’s a warmth shining through with even the stoniest-faced of sitters. It’s little surprise he says he’s inspired by 15th-Century painting and album sleeve artists including Storm Thorgerson, and Paul openly declares a love for Photoshop’s ability to shift reality into a different, often more beautiful sphere.