Mathieu Bitton, award-winning designer, art director and Leica ambassador, presents Paris Blues, his first photo book in large-format coffee-table format. In this captivating collection, the internationally acclaimed photographer, who was born in Paris, devotes himself to his home city - one of the most fascinating and most visited places in the world. With his camera, Bitton captures Paris in all its facets, from the glamorous world of haute couture to the everyday moments of Parisian life.

In the following interview, Mathieu Bitton gives us a deeper insight into the creation of his photo book, his personal connection to Paris and the artistic vision behind Paris Blues.

teNeues:

Thank you for taking the time, Mathieu! How long did the process of creating the photo book Paris Blues take?

Mathieu Bitton:

Well first, in order to put together the January 2024 Los Angeles show of Paris Blues, I spent a couple of months digging through decades of hard drives, negatives, scans etc to find the right 36 images for the show. Then, when it was time to make the book, I had to go through everything I had gone through, and much more all over again. The book process started on February 9, 2024. That is the day I designed the first cover for it, which is not too far from the final.  

teNeues:

What is so special about this city for you as a native Parisian? 

Mathieu Bitton:

There are so many clichés about Paris and most are very true. I actually included some of great quotes about Paris from many of my favorite artists and authors or as I refer to them in the book, “legendary ghosts,” to further illustrate the beauty and passion born out of Paris. A lot of the greatest art has been created there and remains there in the world’s best museums to this day. Growing up in Paris, I always felt like I lived inside of a painting or a movie. I would walk by a building with a plaque that said “Here lived Camille Claudel” or “Charles Baudelaire died here at 46 years old.” It always amazed me how close all of my favorite artists lived. Because as big as Paris is, it’s very small in comparison to other cities I ended up living in like New York or Los Angeles. Paris has a unique aroma —although unpleasant in some areas—a steaming crêpes with chestnut spread or freshly baked crisp baguette calling my name as I walk out of a 2am Prince show at Les Bains Douches at dawn, but stelling for the seductive buttery pain-au-chocolat instead; The marvel of Paris will awaken your every senses and inspire a fairy tale of experiences at any time of the day or night.  

Paris history is so rich that you could spend your entire life exploring it and yet still not see it all. There are too many secret passages, some of which are seen in Paris Blues but most are intentionally left untold and unseen. 

teNeues:

Which picture is your favorite from the photo book Paris Blues and why? 

Mathieu Bitton:

This is always a very difficult question as my favorites change depending on what side of the bed I woke up one and whether I am listening to Dvořák or Led Zeppelin while enjoying my daily beach walks —that is unless I am on the road— which is quite often. Today, I decided to drink coffee again after four months without, so my favorite photo is a “scene” that combines two images from different eras but look like a single moment in time. On pages 60–61, in the flea market section of the book. We see a small poster for the 1972 Bruce Lee film “The Way of the Dragon” seemingly protecting my first idol, Jean-Paul Belmondo brandishing a shotgun, ready to hunt down his enemies, with Lee’s help, on a folded door-panel promotional poster for the 1976 Philippe Labro film “L’Alpagueur,” only to be upstaged by the perfection of a headless centrefold nude model, probably torn out of an early 1980s Lui magazine; or perhaps, my childhood expertise tells me it could a poster from one of the Emmanuelle movies.

teNeues:

You have already shown successful exhibitions such as Travelogue, Ascension and Darker Than Blue. What distinguishes Paris Blues from these previous works, and what new perspectives on your artistic development can viewers discover in it? 

Mathieu Bitton:

All of my exhibitions have been somewhat personal but Paris Blues is by far my most personal, self-reflective and self-analysing project to date. This body of work is therapeutic for me and has helped me deal with and reflect on various aspects of my childhood and my life—both good and bad. Maybe this is more of an inhibition then an exhibition. The viewer will maybe feel my vulnerabilities in this work. There are hidden messages within many images. This is where imagination comes in. By flipping through the 240 pages of this book, you are walking along with me in my everyday journey; you become a fly on the wall of my life.  

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teNeues:

In the illustrated book you describe Paris as a “shimmering Babylon”—can you explain this further? 

Mathieu Bitton:

I do not use the term “Babylon” in the way a Rastafarian uses it, referring to the biblical image of an evil establishment. “Shimmering Babylon”—to me—means a radiating magnificent place, that can also be dark and filled with excess and wickedness. Paris has a dark underworld like any great city, but above it is so much beauty. I am speaking of the vibrant Babylon of Mesopotamian culture that Herodotus wrote about in the fifth century B.C.E. Notre Dame, le Sacré Coeur, Opéra Garnier and many other monuments are center pieces in my shimmering Babylon, as is Serge Gainsbourg’s house which I do a pilgrimage to every time I arrive in Paris.  

teNeues:

Do you have any current projects? If so, can you tell us more about them? 

Mathieu Bitton:

I have just finished producing a new comedy album for Dave Chappelle’s “The Dreamer.” 

I have suddenly been inspired to put together a book of my Africa photos, many of which I shot this summer in Zanzibar, Kenya, Rwanda and Senegal, as well as photos from previous trips to Morrocco, Ghana and South Africa.  

I am deep in preparations for the New Yok City opening of Paris Blues on November 7 and 8.  

I also recently worked on an amazing “Leica Reporter” jacket that I helped design with Aether, a great clothing company. I am very proud of that.  

I am also producing a labor of love vinyl project for my favorite soundtrack of all time. If you read the foreword of my book, you’ll probably guess which one it is. It just celebrated its 50th anniversary.  

I am also very excited to soon be working on another Quincy Jones project. 

teNeues:

To what extent does your experience as a designer for the music and film industry inform the visual language of Paris Blues, and are there any particular cinematic or musical moods that you have captured in this illustrated book? 

Mathieu Bitton:

The title Paris Blues  comes from the 1961 film starring Sidney Poitier and Paul Newman, about two jazz musicians who fall in love with two American women (Joanne Woodward and Diahann Carroll) while on vacation in Paris. It has a beautiful score by Duke Ellington and also featured Louis Armstrong who portrays a character named Wild Man Moore. Jazz is a perfect metaphor for Paris and most of the great jazz musicians of the 50s and 60s were welcomed with open arms in Paris when they were not allowed to use the same drinking fountain as Whites in the U.S. 

The main inspirations for Paris Blues are Jazz; Serge Gainsbourg; Josephine Baker; Brassai is a big influence, significantly his photographs in the 1956 book Quiet Days in Clichy written by Henry Miller, who’s banned novels Black Spring, Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, were also a big influence. Cinematic moods such as Godard and Truffaut films are a big influence as well. Breathless, The 400 Blows and tying Jazz to Cinema, Louis Malle’s 1958 masterpiece Elevator to the Gallows with its hypnotic Miles Davis soundtrack is basically blood flowing through my veins. It seems like the sweet spot of inspiration was between the mid-1930s and 1960s Paris.  

I strongly suggest the following albums to listen to while exploring this book: 

-Django Reinhardt “Paris 1945” 

-Serge Gainsbourg “Histoire de Melody Nelson” 

- Miles Davis “Ascenseur Pour l'Échafaud (Original Soundtrack)” 

-Quincy Jones “This Is How I Feel About Jazz” 

-Jacques Brel “Les Marquises” 

-Max Roach “Parisian Sketches” 

-Johnny Hallyday & Francis Lai “L’Aventure C’est L’aventure (Original Soundtrack)” 

-Duke Ellington feat. Louis Armstrong “Paris Blues (Original Soundtrack)” 

-Alain Goraguer “La Planète Sauvage” 

-Dexter Gordon “Our Man in Paris” 

-Charlie Lewis “Harlem Piano In Montmartre” 

-Herbie Hancock “Round Midnight (Original Soundtrack)” 

-Ennio Morricone “Frantic (Original Soundtrack)” 

-Stan Getz “Jazz In Paris” 

-Slide Hampton “Exodus”