A Photographic Life - 243: Plus Gautier Deblonde

In episode 243 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed looking to the future whilst reflecting on the evolution of cameras, AI portraits and listening to photo talk. Plus this week, photographer Gautier Deblonde takes on the challenge of supplying Grant with an audio file no longer than 5 minutes in length in which he answer’s the question ‘What Does Photography Mean to You?’ Gautier Deblonde is a French photographer, renowned for his portraits of key international artists and a practice that is situated between reportage and documentary. Born and raised in France, he moved to London in 1991 to work as a photographer. He works closely with his artist subjects, photographing their working spaces and in doing so their contributions to the art world. Deblonde's subjects include Damien Hirst, Gilbert & George, Jeff Koons, Antony Gormley and Ron Mueck. His book Atelier, published by Steidl, captured sixty-nine artist studios in panorama, providing a glimpse behind the scenes to the source of artistic creation, and his book Artists, published by Tate Gallery in 1999, brought together a number of his artist portraits. Projects have included True North (2009), a series about Svalbard in the High Arctic exhibited at Galerie du Jour Agnès B in Paris, and Still Life: Ron Mueck at Work (2013), a documentary film commissioned by the Fondation Cartier. Deblonde's photographs of the creation and installation into the Millennium Dome of Ron Mueck’s sculpture Boy won a World Press Award and were published in 2001. His works have been exhibited in a number of museums and galleries including Le Petit Palais in Paris, Tate Britain and the National Portrait Gallery in London. www.gautierdeblonde.com Dr. Grant Scott is the founder/curator of United Nations of Photography, a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, a working photographer, documentary filmmaker, BBC Radio contributor and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Routledge 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Routledge 2019). His film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay was first screened in 2018 www.donotbendfilm.com. He is the presenter of the A Photographic Life and In Search of Bill Jay podcasts. © Grant Scott 2022