![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.mtlmediagroup.com\/loveskatemag\/www\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/FRED_BAG_HIRES.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Everything he touches turn into gold. From the Menikmati to the Flip\u2019s Sorry, or the Clich\u00e9\u2019s opus. Fred is\u00a0<\/b>literally what the word creative means. And now he\u2019s doing it again with his <\/b><\/span>photographies from all over the world. Nobody can\u2019t stop French Fred.<\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tell me your ID, and your skate background? Your photography background? When did you realized that you would take pictures? Where your inspiration come from? I had no reference or photography culture back then. I\u2019ve develloped my own style, I\u2019ve been to artshow, read books, and I\u2019ve discovered huge photographers who had style that talked to me and were closed from what I\u2019ve done. I loved pictures from people like Koudelka, Depardon, Cartier-Bresson, Burk Uzzle, Berengo-Gardin,Titarenko, the old ones! I\u2019m less sensitive to modern style pictures .<\/p>\n What was the first and last gear you\u2019ve bought? Do you write, think and prepare your shots? What are the good and bad sides from this passion? 3 things you love about photography? 3 things you don\u2019t like about photography? \u00abThere is inspiration in everything, good and bad\u00bb<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Roughly speaking, what\u2019s your annual earning from photography? From your own work, what are you favorites pieces? You\u2019ve published your first book, a retrospective from your work, it has been sold out and you are on a second printing. How it all started? And its working, during my exhibitions, people who aren\u2019t related to skateboarding are fascinated by my pictures, and I love it. Part of my approach is to discover the richness and interest of skateboarding, to overcome the negative clich\u00e9s on which the outside world can focus. I\u2019m happy to get people\u2019s attention and\u00a0curiosity, and to convey positive emotions about the skateboard that I love so much and that has transformed my life for the better.<\/p>\n Few years ago, you told me you were shooting 85% on film, and trying to not get over 15% on digital, that is still the case? But in 2013, I was offered to shoot with a Leica for 3 months, a digital, the M Monochrom, wich takes only black and white pictures. I was honored, but I was worried about shooting and being able to mix these images with my film photos, because my work unfolds in the long term … since my beginnings I remain on the same\u00a0aesthetic line. I could have this continuity altered. But I was instantly amazed by the quality of the device, which had absolutely nothing to do with digital that I used until then.<\/p>\n I was more under the impression of having in my hands an hybrid\u00a0machine between film and digital, and so, finally, no problem to mix these new images with others, even my oldest ones. because my collaboration with them continues currently. Since 2013, I shoot 95% in digital since our collaboration is based on the use of their new generation\u00a0devices, and this allowed me to progress faster than ever, especially since I was late in photo, since it has always been a kind of hobby aside from my work as a director. At the moment I reversed the steam and devotes mostly to the photo. I still bought an M6, and it\u2019s good to shoot in film! It remains an unique\u00a0experience, which I miss. I would be more intimately acquainted with the film\u00a0later, but the compromise I made was unavoidable, collaborating closely with Leica is something I never thought, even in my wildest and most ambitious dreams!<\/p>\n Everything he touches turn into gold. From the Menikmati to the Flip\u2019s Sorry, or the Clich\u00e9\u2019s opus. Fred is\u00a0literally what the word creative means. And now he\u2019s doing it again with his photographies from all over the world. Nobody can\u2019t stop French …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[48,8,15,49,50,53,46,20,21,51,7,47,9,10,52,13,27,12,11,14],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mtlmediagroup.com\/loveskatemag\/www\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mtlmediagroup.com\/loveskatemag\/www\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mtlmediagroup.com\/loveskatemag\/www\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mtlmediagroup.com\/loveskatemag\/www\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mtlmediagroup.com\/loveskatemag\/www\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/www.mtlmediagroup.com\/loveskatemag\/www\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162,"href":"http:\/\/www.mtlmediagroup.com\/loveskatemag\/www\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions\/162"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mtlmediagroup.com\/loveskatemag\/www\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mtlmediagroup.com\/loveskatemag\/www\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mtlmediagroup.com\/loveskatemag\/www\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mtlmediagroup.com\/loveskatemag\/www\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/b>Fred Mortagne, 41, Lyon, France.
\nFirst board was plastic, only for downhill sit on, it was 33 years ago!<\/p>\n
\n<\/b>I\u2019ve bought a FM2 camera during 2001, I\u2019m an autodidact.<\/p>\n
\n<\/b>It came from the frustration during sesh to imagine, visualize possible pictures, that the other photographers didn\u2019t shoot, cause they just didn\u2019t \u00absee\u00bb these. And travelling a lot, i\u2019ve felt to do some visual souvenir, and not just skateboarding tricks on video.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.mtlmediagroup.com\/loveskatemag\/www\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Marc.Tison_.Montreal.Canada.BSCrailSlide.NikonFM2.jpg\")
\nMarc Tison \/ Backside TailCrail Slide up the lip, Montreal<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/b>From everywhere. There is inspiration in everything, good and bad..
\nIn skateboarding, I\u2019ve always loved Daniel Harold Sturt\u2019s work, in video or\u00a0photography. He started as a filmer too.<\/p>\n
\n<\/b>My first camera, was a compact Yashika T5. It was just for travelling, and I\u2019ve been quickly tired of it, cause there was no manual control. Then I\u2019ve bought a Nikon FM2 after some advices, I don\u2019t need the last gear from the market.
\nIt\u2019s not something that I\u2019m looking for. I\u2019ve also bought an Hasselblad Xpan too, but I didn\u2019t use it much, and it broke 2 times, it\u2019s too expensive to fix it. My last bought was few lens from Zeiss for Nikon, and I\u2019m very happy of it.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.mtlmediagroup.com\/loveskatemag\/www\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/MADARS_APSE_FS_BOARDSLIDE_CPH.jpg\")
\nMadars Apse \/ Frontside Boardslide, Copenhagen<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/b>I go with the flow, I have a documentary approach, I feel more comfortable to start with reality, than invent something A to Z.<\/p>\n
\n<\/b>The boring thing to do, the go and return to the lab, scanning, etc, tasks that doesn\u2019t ask creativity. And doing archives in digital.<\/p>\n
\n<\/b>Giving an timeless look to pictures. Every time I discover a new roll of film, I\u2019m like a kid. Producing nice memory.<\/p>\n
\n<\/b>The price of the gear. The weight of my backpack. The copycat photographers, when someone doing something cool, mags publish that trend over and over, Its boring. Same in the skate videos.<\/p>\n
\n<\/b>Honestly I don\u2019t know, cause I\u2019m not doing it full time, I do a lot of video in parallel, its not constant. Its changing a lot from year to year, I\u2019m not rich anyway, some years I\u2019ve spent more that I have earn, but I see it like an investment, hopefully in years later some pictures would be more valued.<\/p>\n
\n<\/b>The one from Ali Boulala, where he is jumping on the windows. The silhouette kickflip from Lucas Puig. And many that are not linked to skateboarding.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.mtlmediagroup.com\/loveskatemag\/www\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Andrew.Brophy.FStailslide.Lyon_.France.NikonFM2.jpg\")
\nAndrew Brophy \/ Frontside Tailslide, Lyon<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/b>It\u2019s been a few years since I had that idea of a book, but I was waiting for the right time, without knowing when it would be! One day Thomas Campbell called me to do my first book, and I knew right away it was time, even if I would never ask
\nThomas to do a book about me. I was honored that he made that proposition, and I knew that with him, it would be perfect. The book has been appreciated, and we would never though that it would be sold out after 4 months. We were expecting this not before 3 years at least. The feedback has been really positive from in and out skateboarding, more than I would imagine. With my work, I\u2019m trying to open\u00a0skateboarding to a larger public.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.mtlmediagroup.com\/loveskatemag\/www\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/RileyBoland_Crail2.jpg\")
\nRiley Boland, Frontside Crail Tailslide, Montreal<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/b>It has completly changed! Till 2013 I was a big defender of the film. I did an\u00a0exhibition in 2007 called \u00ab\u00a0One Foot In The Grave\u00a0\u00bb where I was burning\u00a0negatives, to materialize the rough time film was into. I presented this work in 2008 in Montreal and Vancouver. Ideally I would have liked to remain decided on film, especially since the digital really did not excite me at all.<\/p>\n
\nAs I was in direct contact with Leica, I shot as much as possible in the time that was imparted to show them my photographic potential. This strategy\u00a0 paid off,<\/p>\nYou can buy Fred\u2019s book from his website: www.frenchfred.com<\/a> you will have a \u00a0 special shipping deal if you order it from Canada. You can also follow his adventures on instagram @frenchfred<\/a><\/b><\/span><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"