Charlélie Couture : Free Thinker
If his name first evokes music, a talent for words and a very particular voice, but Charlélie Couture is much more than that, he is first and foremost a multidisciplinary artist who has a keen sense of dramatization.
Hyperactive, alternately painter, artist, sculptor, photographer, his work as a visual artist is in an approach to absolute art. He likes to mix different mediums to make a new form of expression in a kaleidoscope way.
He has always taken pictures, from his first Kodak “box” he received when he was seven years old, to his last digital Leica. Wherever he goes, he never forgets his essentials: keys, phone, notebook, pen and of course his camera which is his memory box, his weapon against forgetting as he likes to say.
A concerned and committed spectator, particularly by the future of our planet, he considers that the function of an artist is to say things, because even if he does not have the power of decision he at least has the power of speech.
Fascinated by the great metropolises, a few years ago he took his family to New York, a city open to art and creation, which inspired a series of urban photographs for which he captured the city and its entrails to rework his images with fluorescent brushstrokes.
He makes images between dream and reality, mixing moments, simultaneities to make time a personal and poetic reconstruction because for him a work of art is nothing but a proposal, a vision of the world at a T moment.
Back on the road in France starting mid-June with two different concerts, a new show “Essential Concerts” in duo with Karim Attoumane and with the group during the summer of 2021, he will be in Paris Salle Gaveau on September 30, 2021, Charlélie is currently exhibiting at the Musée de la Chartreuse in Douai, and is also preparing an exhibition at the Galerie Brugier-Rigail in Paris very soon.
Instagram : charleliecouture
Website : www.charlelie.com /. www.charlelie.nyc
Exhibitions : www.museedelachartreuse.fr. Gallery : galerie-brugier-rigail.com
Your first photographic trigger ?
Charlélie Couture : Paris Match photo reportages on the demonstrations and riots of May 68.
The man of images who inspires you?
Charlélie Couture : There are several: Marcel Duchamp, Ai weiwei, Man Ray, Martin Kippenberger.
The image you would have liked to make?
Charlélie Couture : The portrait of the Che by Alberto Korda, the one of the commander Massoud by REZA.
The one that moved you the most?
Charlélie Couture : Rue Aubriot, Paris 1975 by Helmut Newton.
And the one that made you angry?
Charlélie Couture : Nick Ut’s photograph showing young Kim Phuc running naked in front of the bombs (1972).
A key image in your personal pantheon?
Charlélie Couture : The three photos showing the breaking of a Ming pottery by Ai Weiwei.
The quality necessary to be a good photographer?
Charlélie Couture : Availability and above all promptness.
The secret of the perfect picture, if it exists?
Charlélie Couture : A photo is a capture, it immortalizes the moment, what makes the strength of a photo is the story it tells or rather the intrigue it suggests…
The person you would dream of photographing?
Charlélie Couture : Bob Dylan or Barak Obama.
An essential photo book?
Charlélie Couture : « Grammaire élémentaire de l’image » by Albert Plécy.
The camera of your beginnings ?
Charlélie Couture : Brownie Flash Eastman Kodak then Asahi Pentax ME.
The one you use today?
Charlélie Couture : Lumix LX100 II.
Your favorite drug?
Charlélie Couture : The best? Art or work – and the worst? television.
The best way to disconnect for you?
Charlélie Couture : Play tennis, write poetry, make love…
Your greatest quality?
Charlélie Couture : Lucid, clear-sighted and faithful.
An image to illustrate a new banknote?
Charlélie Couture : The eye by JR.
The job you would not have liked to do?
Charlélie Couture : Truck driver.
Your biggest extravagance as a photographer?
Charlélie Couture : No idea !
The values you wish to share through your images?
Charlélie Couture : The awareness of aesthetics, in other words “the substance under the form”.
The city, country or culture you dream of discovering?
Charlélie Couture : Maybe New Zealand.
The place you never get tired of?
Charlélie Couture : New York.
Your biggest regret?
Charlélie Couture : I wish I had known at 25 what I knew at 50.
Instagram, Tik Tok or Snapchat?
Charlélie Couture : Instagram!!!
Color or B&W?
Charlélie Couture : Black, white, grey and fluorescent orange.
Daylight or artificial light?
Charlélie Couture : Natural light THEN finishing with photoshop!!!
The most photogenic city according to you?
Charlélie Couture : New York Manhattan.
If God existed, would you ask him to pose for you, or would you opt for a selfie with him?
Charlélie Couture : In either case I don’t dare think how ridiculous my answer would be.
The image that represents for you the current state of the world?
Charlélie Couture : A funnel into which cement is poured.
