SAINT × SIMON "ONIMS"
Simon "Onims" grew up in Bordeaux, half Vietnamese, half French. He shoots like he's looking for something — beauty, but only when it costs something to find. We sat down with him briefly.
Saint: You're 22, and your photos already feel like they have a past. Where does that come from?
Onims: A photograph is an object that lets you remember things, and pass an emotion along to someone else. That's the base of it for me. Everything else comes after.
Saint: When did photography stop being something you were doing, and start being something that was happening to you?
Onims: In 2023. That's when I realised there was something there worth digging into. I started understanding what I liked, what I actually wanted to put across — and what I wanted other people to like too.
Saint: You're 22. Does that feel like a constraint right now, or more like a free pass?
Onims: Free pass, easily. There's no rush. The world is huge, I can work with anyone, and I'm still very young. No reason to be stressed.
Saint: What does your space look like when you're editing? Are you someone who needs order, or do you work in your own mess?
Onims: Total mess. I like it chaotic around me — cans, lollipops, sodas, crumbs, the works. I don't like order. I like spontaneity, ideas popping up like that. When it's a bit grimy, what you make ends up more honest.
Saint: Do you shoot better alone, or with a room full of people?
Onims: Doesn't really matter. I like it when there are people around of course, but honestly what I really need is music. Music is the most important part of the context for me. If there's no music I'm miserable. So I'd say both, but having Music playing is mandatory.
__________________________________________
IDENTITY & PHILOSOPHY
Saint: You don't seem interested in giving your work a thesis. In 2026, when everything in art needs a statement behind it, that's almost a provocation. Was it a choice, or just who you are?
Onims: Not really a choice. If I felt like making something heavy and loud, I'd do it — but right now, that's not what I want to come through in my work. I love politically engaged art. I'm just not interested in being engaged inside my own pictures. I'd rather make something beautiful. I'm engaged outside of it — politically, all the way — but not in the photos. Maybe that changes later.
Saint: You've pulled back from heavy political framing — you'd rather the image breathe than explain itself. Did you arrive at that consciously, or did you just get tired of images that talk too much?
Onims: I like it chaotic and overloaded. Lots of information, lots of contrast. I don't like things flat — I like it at the extreme, I like when it pops off. I see life like a party.
Saint: Half-Vietnamese, half-French. Two visual cultures with very different histories, very different ideas of what an image should do. Do you feel that when you shoot? Is it friction, or does it just blend?
Onims: It plays in unconsciously, a lot. My parents raised me around art — a lot of museums, a lot of music. I try to feed off both cultures. Right now I'm really into Vietnamese photographers. You pull from your own experience without meaning to, so there's always going to be a strong cultural layer underneath.
Saint: Where does your work end and your subject begin? Do you even think about that line?
Onims: It depends on the project. On whether I'm into it or not. The last one I made, I liked — and that has everything to do with the people I'm with and the subject. Especially when someone gives me carte blanche. That's when it's actually fun.
__________________________________________
PROCESS
Saint: When you're in a shoot, what's your relationship with control? Are you directing what you see, or chasing it?
Onims: Both, honestly. Sometimes you roughly know where it's going and the team's leading you. Other times you're freer. You go with the flow either way.
Saint: Post-production — is it how you finish an image, or how you make it? Those are different things.
Onims: I only care about the final result. I don't care how I got there. You can cheat all you want — the final image is what matters, and obviously f*** AI.
Saint: How do you know when a shot is finished? Is it a feeling or more of a decision?
Onims: A feeling. Though it depends — the last few shoots didn't really end the way I wanted.
Saint: Color in your work, when it shows up, hits hard. The red mask against the grey field, that electric blue on skin. Is color punctuation for you?
Onims: I see it as the whole sentence. Colour encompasses everything. Right now it's what I'm most interested in — even when I test things out, I keep coming back to it.
__________________________________________
EMOTION
Saint: What do you actually feel during a shoot? Not after, not in editing. During.
Onims: Excited. I'm having fun. I feel light, I'm looking for fun and trying to grab it while I shoot.
Saint: Is there something you keep coming back to in your work that you haven't figured out yet? Something that pulls at you without ever fully showing you what it is?
Onims: Something fairy-tale. A bit otherworldly.
Saint: Your images feel like they're keeping something back. Is that intentional, or are you working something out yourself?
Onims: I'm not hiding anything. My photos exist to be beautiful — for people to look at them and say "that's beautiful." Purely aesthetic. That's it.
_________________________________________
CULTURE & AESTHETICS
Saint: Beauty is political even when you're not trying to make it political. The bodies you choose, the skin you light. How aware are you of those decisions when you're making them?
Onims: I cast the people I find beautiful who fit the shoot I want to make. I don't really care about colour or ethnicity. Sometimes I picture someone specific who'd match — for the sword shoot, I was just looking for someone with tattoos. I don't think my photos need to prove I'm engaged. I am engaged. That's enough.
Saint: Who are you actually shooting for? Do you think about a person on the other side, or is that not part of it?
Onims: Not really, no. I shoot for myself. Very selfishly. (laughs)
_________________________________________
INDUSTRY
Saint: Your generation had an audience before you had a fully formed voice. Instagram gave you that. Do you think it's been good for your work, or did it just create pressure that didn't need to exist yet?
Onims: Instagram's a good way to talk to people and put things across. I've always loved seeing what other people are doing. It's practical — you communicate, you see the world through someone else's eyes. Honestly, yeah. There's no pressure for me. I'm not under pressure.
Saint: Is there a job you'd turn down even if the money made sense? Where's your line?
Onims: Anything that goes against my values. That's where it gets interesting, because my work isn't political — but I'd never take a job for something I disagree with personally. Nothing racist, nothing that goes against what I actually believe in. You see what I mean.
Saint: What do older photographers get wrong about what your generation is doing?
Onims: Honestly, I don't really exchange with older photographers. I respect their work. But I still struggle with the idea that, for them, retouching a photo is supposed to be minimal. They're not into overkill the way we young people are.
_________________________________________
FAST QUESTIONS
Saint: You can only shoot in one color for the rest of your life. Which one?
Onims: Blue. For now. Could change. Ask me again next year.
Saint: A photo that wrecked you for a week — not because it was bad, but because it was too good. Do you have one?
Onims: Not a photo, but Yeng P's work really is something.
Saint: If your work was a music genre, what comes to mind first? Not an artist. A genre.
Onims: Rap, sometimes. Hyperpop, other times.
Saint: What's something beautiful that genuinely can't be photographed?
Onims: Violet. It's so hard to make it look good. The colour's too complex. I don't know — I just can't pull it off.
_________________________________________
CLOSING
Saint: Ten years from now, someone walks into a room of your work. What do you want them to feel? Not think — feel.
Onims: I want people to go "wow." I want them to be amazed. Simple as that.
Saint: You shoot beauty for beauty's sake. But beauty always means something, even when you're trying to keep it open. What does yours mean?
Onims: It pleases the eye. I'm honestly not chasing meaning behind it. If I like it, it's all good — I'm a simple man.
[interview ends]
__________________________________________
You want to get featured in the next Issue ?
Submit your work → submissions@saintmag.co
