Our Story
We photograph what happens before the photograph anyone takes.
Jdka Studio began in 2019 when two photographers — both with backgrounds in editorial documentary work — realised they kept returning to the same subject: people who make things with their hands, and the particular quality of attention that kind of work requires.
We're based at 37 Rue Saint-Malo in Rennes, though most of our work happens elsewhere — in pottery workshops in Brittany, weaving studios in the Basque country, glass furnaces in Bohemia, furniture workshops in Wallonia. We travel to wherever the work is.
The studio is small by intention. We take on a limited number of commissions each season so that each one gets the time it needs. The work isn't scalable and we don't try to make it so.
The team
Elise Marchetti
Photographer & Co-founder
Elise spent seven years as a staff photographer at a regional French press agency before leaving to focus on longer-form documentary work. She holds a degree in applied arts from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Rennes and completed a residency at the Fondation Cartier in 2017.
She covers ceramics, textile work, and most of the studio's editorial commissions.
Topics: ceramics, textile craft, editorial assignments
LinkedIn profileRomain Fontaine
Photographer & Co-founder
Romain came to photography through industrial design — he worked for four years in product development before realising he was more interested in how objects were made than in making them. He trained in documentary photography at the Spéos school in Paris.
He focuses on woodworking, metalwork, glassblowing, and process-intensive crafts where timing is critical.
Topics: woodworking, metalwork, glassblowing, portfolio builds
LinkedIn profileA note on how we work
We don't direct the work. You'll find photographers who'll ask you to hold the pot differently or stand in better light. That's not us. What we look for is what actually happens — the pause before a decision, the adjustment nobody would call a technique, the moment when something works that might not work again.
This means sessions take time. We move slowly. We shoot in natural light wherever possible. We edit carefully and don't deliver a hundred images when twenty good ones serve the purpose better.
If that sounds like what you need, get in touch.