Top Ten (Twelve!) Questions With Mathieu Bitton

Paris-born Mathieu Bitton, a Leica Ambassador, has photographed probably the most global’s maximum celebrated artists, together with Quincy Jones, The Rolling Stones, Kendrick Lamar, Lady Gaga, and Bruce Springsteen, in addition to designing and artwork directing albums, posters, books, and promotional fabrics — incomes him 3 Grammys. Here he explains tips on how to damage thru an artistic block, why regulations of composition are supposed to be damaged, and why he burns sweetgrass over used apparatus.

What Are Must-Carry Items Always in Your Bag?

Leica M11 Monochrom with APO-Summicron M 50mm f/2 and additional battery, Leica Q3, antique Leica SF-20 flash, lens wipe, USB-C charger for each telephone and digital camera, a lighter (I don’t smoke however any individual all the time wishes a mild in my industry), a notepad with a Pilot ballpoint pen, some outdated industry paperback e book, these days Mr. Majestyk through Elmore Leonard.

What Art Books Should Every Photographer Own?

In no particular order: Henry Miller & Brassaï Quiet Days in Clichy (the unique uncommon printing), Gordon Parks Collected Works, Elliott Erwitt Paris, New York, and Dogs, Henri Cartier-Bresson The Decisive Moment, Herman Leonard Jazz Memories (Vintage French Edition) or Jazz (U.S.), William Claxton Jazz Life, Bruce Davidson East 100th Street, Roxanne Lowit Moments, Irving Penn Small Trades, William Eggleston The Outlands, Jim Marshall Proof and Jazz, Ernest Cole House of Bondage, Diane Arbus An Aperture Monograph, Malick Sidibé Mali Twist, Jacques Henri Lartigue The Invention of Happiness, Sebastião Salgado Genesis, Richard Avedon An Autobiography, Weegee Naked City, Ansel Adams The Camera.

How Do You Know When a Photo Is a Success?

When I don’t have to invite myself if the picture is excellent or if it really works for the meant activity or imaginative and prescient. I believe there’s a silent language for a a success {photograph}. I don’t love to apply technical regulations both. I love symmetry or the rule of thumb of thirds, however it doesn’t have to use to a perfect symbol. Reality doesn’t apply as many regulations as we’d adore it to. Instinct is best than regulations so far as I’m involved.

Which Photographers Inspired You? What About Their Work Inspired You?

Henri Cartier-Bresson, Bruce Davidson, Jim Marshall, Eli Reed, and naturally Gordon Parks. Contemporaries that encourage me are Andre Wagner and Phil Penman. Masters of the craft. Brassaï is a big affect on my new e book Paris Blues. The undeniable fact that they spent loads of 1000’s of hours patiently shooting fantastic moments that may perpetually be another way misplaced. Their willpower to the craft. The selection and love of particular cameras (as a Leica collector and consumer, I know how in detail one will also be married to sure cameras). These photographers see one thing on this global I imagine I see too. Almost like some other measurement that exists parallel to ours. Many of those photographers had been brave and put themselves in uncomfortable puts to seize sure works. And black and white evokes me such a lot. My first revealed e book Darker Than Blue, which used to be all black and white, used to be very impressed through Parks and Reed. And James Van Der Zee.

What Photo Skill Do You Wish You Were Better At?

Zone focusing with the Leica M. My pal Phil Cuenco at Leica is best at it than any person I’ve ever observed. It’s the one factor I’m jealous of. And additionally to be as speedy as my pal Mark DePaola with the Leica Noctilux 50mm f/0.95 lens. I’m slowly getting there. But Mark is a real grasp of the craft. His upcoming e book A Stab at Heaven from the movie of the similar title is a brilliant instance of his use of that lens.

Do You Have Any Rituals? Superstitions? 

Showing gratitude is a ritual, even supposing internally prior to taking pictures. I love to scrub my cameras prior to each and every use, even supposing simply with a lens cleaner or wipe. Making certain the SD playing cards are wiped is crucial ritual too. Making certain all batteries are charged. We’ve all made that mistake prior to. Superstitions: sure, I by no means like speaking a few shoot or venture prior to it’s introduced. I by no means get excited or no less than display any pleasure after I e book a brand new venture out of worry it might jinx it. I gather outdated Fred Harvey Native American turquoise rings and in that tradition (which I’ve not anything genetically hooked up to), they burn sweetgrass to carry new power to the outdated issues, so I do this with older Leicas and lenses I buy. I as soon as bought a 1980s Leica M6 from a pawn store in West Hollywood and as I paid for it, the fellow informed me the gentleman who owned it had gotten run over through a bus whilst taking pictures an image of a development, just like how one in all my favourite architects, Antoni Gaudí, used to be killed in 1926 at 73 years outdated, however it used to be a tram in Barcelona. I’ve a large obsession with numerology too, so even the serial numbers on my cameras have so as to add as much as a excellent quantity. Incidentally, the brand new Leica M11 Black Paint “Leica 100” New York City Edition digital camera I simply were given ultimate week is #73. I used to be additionally born in 1973.

Where Do You Find Inspiration for an Image?

I in finding inspiration in my topics and the historical past that introduced us in combination. I’m now not a large temper board roughly man. I do know individuals who put in combination wonderful forums prior to a shoot. I don’t like taking a look at different paintings to encourage mine. Of path, my mind is stuffed with gorgeous pictures that encourage me, so it’s extra like an imaginary information financial institution of inspiration. I can, alternatively, in finding inspiration from poetry. My favorites being the Beat poets comparable to Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gregory Corso, Jack Kerouac, and French poets like Guillaume Apollinaire, Charles Baudelaire, and Arthur Rimbaud. Great movies can encourage me too. Louis Malle’s Elevator to the Gallows will all the time do the trick, particularly with its fantastic Miles Davis rating.

Photographers Are Always Told to Develop a Style or Find a Voice, however There Is Little Advice on How to Find That Voice. What Guidance Can You Offer?

I all the time inform younger photographers who question me how I’ve gotten to the purpose the place folks acknowledge my paintings. It’s one thing I all the time attempt to perform. I inform them to prevent seeking to emulate different photographers. That is simplest excellent follow if you happen to’re seeking to get a hold of particular lights. “How did Avedon do that?” “How many lights did Horst use?” That’s particular. I inform them to stay digging, stay putting in the shot you consider to your thoughts, then repeat it 1000 occasions till other topics appear to be they’re a part of the similar sequence. Take dangers. Fail as again and again as you want to till you get a hold of your individual glance.

Have You Ever Had a Creative Block? How Did You Overcome It?

More than a couple of occasions! It is the worst feeling if you find yourself caught. Because I’m an artwork director and dressmaker first, there’s a series of steps I absorb my paintings. The worst imaginable factor is that if I ever lose my inspiration — be it because of private screw ups or rigidity, forces of nature. How have I gotten out of it? Sometimes it’s so simple as any individual I love (typically a perfect artist) offers me a heartfelt praise a few particular piece of labor. It sounds self-aggrandizing, however all of us have that little child model of ourselves that every so often feels insecure or scared. It’s one thing I’ve to battle arduous to damage thru. And after I do, my paintings improves.

What Is the Best Learning Experience You Have Ever Had?

I’ve all the time been identified to put on many hats in my occupation. I began my “career” working a Prince fan membership when I used to be 12 or so. Then I began designing fanzines and bootleg CDs of items I sought after to in the future make respectable. Then I got to work as an artwork director and dressmaker in model (I used to be senior packaging and design director for American Eagle Outfitters in NYC within the mid-1990s, proper out of NYU). Then I were given the chance to paintings on a e book on Blaxploitation movie posters with Quentin Tarantino, so I surrender that activity and got here to LA to paintings on that. One factor ended in some other and I got to work on numerous album covers, field units, and DVD packaging, among different issues. Then I began to control artists. Musicians. I used to be additionally generating some tune tasks. Shooting. Designing, and many others. The tale is just too lengthy for this, however I met Quincy Jones who actually took a liking to me and my works within the early 2000s. I used to head over to his space for dinner and produce him new tasks I used to be running on or issues that had simply pop out. Well, in the future, he cornered me and requested me what, of all of the issues I did for a residing, I preferred probably the most and — most significantly, since I by no means slept — what made it imaginable to pay my expenses. He stated I used to be doing an excessive amount of and wanted to concentrate on 3 out of the 10 issues I did. That is after I began specializing in images and issues actually took a flip for the most productive. I used to be so proud to shoot Quincy’s ultimate at-home photograph shoot a couple of years again. He handed a couple of days prior to the outlet of my Paris Blues showcase at Leica Gallery Meatpacking in NYC this previous November, and thus I devoted the display to him. He may be within the e book, as we had spent some nice occasions in combination in Paris over time.

What Technique Do You Use Most Often?

The rangefinder at the Leica M cameras. There is not any higher solution to lock into a paranormal second. Autofocus is superb, and I take advantage of it with concert events with the SL3-S cameras and behind the curtain with the Q3 and Q3 43 cameras, however the rangefinder seems like a paintbrush to me. It’s what separates Leica M customers from each and every different roughly photographer, together with telephone photographers. There is one thing so gorgeous and unique about the usage of an all-manual digital camera in 2025.

When You Look Back on Earlier Work, What Are Your Thoughts?

I see how determined I used to be to be accredited as a photographer as a result of I had too many buddies who had been nice photographers when I used to be bobbing up in NYC. My roommate all through my NYU days used to be a perfect photographer. I by no means concept I may just in fact grow to be a qualified photographer. My previous paintings displays a naiveté and somewhat of lack of confidence that I really like to look nowadays. In some way, I nonetheless really feel like I’m simply getting began.

Bio: Paris-born Mathieu Bitton is a photographer, dressmaker, artwork director, and manufacturer who has labored with probably the most global’s maximum celebrated artists, together with Quincy Jones, The Rolling Stones, Kendrick Lamar, Stevie Wonder, Lenny Kravitz, Dave Chappelle, Lady Gaga, Mel Brooks, Bruce Springsteen, and dozens extra. He has designed and artwork directed albums, posters, books, and promotional fabrics for a variety of filmmakers, musicians, and entertainers. He is a three-time Grammy winner, Knight within the Order of Arts and Letters, and recipient of the Seal of the President of the United States for his e book Paris Blues in 2024. He explains why regulations of composition are supposed to be damaged, why you must burn sweetgrass over used apparatus, and tips on how to damage an artistic block.

Top Ten is a habitual function during which we give notable photographers a listing of questions from which they make a selection their favourite ten (or on this case, twelve) to respond to. Answers is also edited for duration and readability.

Website: www.mathieubittonphoto.com

Twitter/Instagram: @candytman

Headshot credit score: ©2024 Jason Roman @stockezy.

All pictures through permission Mathieu Bitton.