I remember Pierre Hennequin the way one remembers a black-and-white photograph: precise, instinctive, soulful. He possesses that rare gaze – the one that captures the vibration of a chord, the tension of a silence just before music fills the space, the exact light that reveals a moment of truth.

He has always reminded me of Jean-Pierre Leloir, that discreet tightrope walker perched on the balcony of L’Olympia theatre in Paris, who knew how to freeze the ephemeral. Like him, Pierre doesn’t just take a picture – he waits for it, listens to it, watches it unfold. He is never about spectacle, always about accuracy. He knows when not to press the shutter. And above all, he knows when everything is there.

But what stands out about him goes beyond his eye. Pierre lives music in all its dimensions: he knows its sounds, its stages, and its backstage. He can envision a visual project, organize a production, structure a tour, write a narrative, support an artist… without ever losing sight of what really matters. He is a field craftsman –meticulous, committed, serving music in its most vivid, bare, and truthful form.

The devil is in the details. And that’s where he excels.

He works with surgical precision, but never coldly. His high standards are never harsh; they are driven by rare sensitivity and deep humanity. He has the gift of being everywhere without ever imposing himself. Of bringing solutions, ideas, a vision – always at the right moment. He is not versatile out of dispersion, but by nature. He shifts from one role to another effortlessly, like changing tempo. Always in rhythm, always in the right place.

His musical culture is vast. It is not limited by genre or era. It is organic, rooted, alive. He can speak about today’s scene as fluently as about the great producers of the seventies, about the role of a label, the signature of a mix, or the subtleties of mastering. He speaks about music the way others speak their native language – not to impress, but with natural accuracy.

And then, there is “A Love Supreme”.

Pierre doesn’t merely reference that album. He carries it within him. He returns to it as one returns to a source, a horizon line, a commitment. He speaks of Coltrane not as an influence, but as a way of inhabiting the world. That inner quest, that sense of verticality, that faith in the sacred power of art – perhaps that’s what he too seeks in every image. Not a frozen instant, but a living trace of something greater than oneself.

He photographs the stage the way others write prayers. Without flourish. With faith.

Pierre Hennequin is a conduit. A sensitive witness. A craftsman who creates connection between artists, venues, crews, and audiences. He has the quiet grace of those who don’t seek the spotlight, but whose presence changes everything.

And in each of his photographs, in every project he supports, there’s always that rare blend: the precision of a master artisan and the sacred fire of a lover.

Gérard Drouot
September 2021