CLAUDE DEGOUTTE
“The wall belongs to the ‘retards’, ‘inept’, ‘rebels’, ‘simpletons’, to all those with a big heart. It is the blackboard of the school of life,” says French-Hungarian artist Brassaï in his famous back Graffiti. A veritable ode to urban art, Brassaï’s reflection was to mark the artistic destiny of photographer Claude Degoute. The latter acquired his first reflex camera in 1977 and started becoming interested in the rich diversity of street art. From 1985, he immortalised the first tagged metros and found himself propelled onto the pages of prestigious magazines such as Stratégies, Pilote, or Photo Revue. Since 2012, he has dedicated himself to street art photography and published three books: Street Dogs, a poetic urban stroll to discover dogs living on the street and Paris Street Art Seasons 1 and 2, a poetic amble through the artworks and walls of the City of Light. Each morning, we find the results of his Parisian flânerie signed @10000pas on his Facebook and Instagram pages.
From 1985 onwards, Claude Degoutte immortalised the first tagged metros and found himself propelled onto the pages of prestigious magazines such as Stratégies, Pilote, or Photo Revue. Since 2012, he has dedicated himself to street art photography and published three books: Street Dogs, a poetic urban stroll to discover these creatures and Paris Street Art, Seasons 1 and 2, poetic wanderings from artwork to artwork, on the walls of the City of Light. Each morning, we find the results of his Parisian flâneries signed @10000pas on his Facebook and Instagram pages.
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Interview
Why photography?
For 30 years I directed corporate films and I love images in movement, but photography has always been for me a simpler and more emotional method for recounting daily life...
And there is also the permanence of the support: it’s nice to be able to come back to black and white negatives or slides and find the emotions there still completely intact...
What is your inspiration?
The street and street art. Since 1977 I have always had a camera in my backpack and the spectacle of the street is unending: all you have to do is stroll.
What is unique about your photographs?
For 10 years now I have been making square photos: it’s obviously ideal for Instagram, but also fantastic for making mosaics of square images on specific themes, bringing together in one view a hundred striking images...
The context of creation of your new series?
After the mosaics on art, cinema, graphic novels and comics, cartoons, music, and literature, I would like to begin a mosaic about the “history of the world” in 100 photos and another on “photography”!
Any anecdotes for us?
On my first contact sheet from 1977: Andy Warhol signing his book The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again) in the impasse des Bourdonnais and further away on the same contact sheet are Nico and Philippe Garrel... Impossible to imagine better sources of inspiration: pop art, music, cinema...
The picture you would love to have taken?
During my walks in Paris, I love to stroll with no particular goal in mind and discover on the walls the new creations of street artists, who are ever younger and ever more numerous. And capture in the flash of an instant, passers-by moving in front of these fleeting works without even seeing them...
The latest prizes / awards you have received?
None, I’m not in the mood for that sort of thing.
Your upcoming projects?
Participating in the exhibition Gainsbourg et caetera for the 30th anniversary of Gainsbourg’s passing with mosaics of 36 images (Galerie One Toutou, Marché Dauphine, Puces de Saint-Ouen)...
A fourth book on street art for October Paris (seen through) Street Art which tells the history of Paris through the works in situ which refer to historical events, writers, painters, films, etc. A whole program!
Your motto?
Victor Hugo’s own motto: “To wander is human, to stroll is Parisian.”
Any crushes on YK pictures?
Man Ray’s, Noire Et Blanche from 1926, of course!
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