Jeff MOUGENOT

The beginnings
Jean-François started photography in 1997 with Frédéric Bitter, a lover of architectural images. They worked together on B&W techniques with night shots.

Jean-François was particularly interested in portraits and scenes of everyday life. Mr. JC Boillon opened the doors of the Sainte Marie institution in Belfort to him in 1999 to prepare his first exhibition and entered him for his first national competition organized by the FFP (French Federation of Photography) where he won the Mercurey prize.

 

• Report on daily life in Poland in July 2000 .

• This series of plates will be completed by other photographs taken from his trip to Mexico in 2001 (7-month internship at TV Azteca in Guadalajara. The photographs illustrated a publishing project "Luxa, moon and light", they are accompanied by a story written by Jean-François (based on his travel diary).

• 2002 : internship at france televisions (france2, france3, france5)

• Report on daily life in Tunisia in October 2008

 

He worked in his photo studio and in concerts for many musical groups from 2007.

The second phase
 

Jeff created his photo studio and recording studio in 2006 .

 

From 2011 , he took a radically different approach when entering the digital age (even if he still prefers the work of film reporting today). He is interested in the transformations of his images via Photoshop in order to create a unique universe adapted to his models. The construction by assembling images is never trivial: there are sometimes hidden elements that correspond to the experience of the person whose portrait is made. Most of the time, research is even carried out on his 5 senses (cinematographic musical or literary sensitivity, anecdotes about his travels, experiences ...). The idea is to find common vectors to build a visual with the basis of a story ...

From a second angle, Jeff seeks to create more personal series, also linked to his tastes (steampunk, rock, freaky circus, burlesque, SF / fantasy ...) or to his projects. He tries to marry different artistic expressions without having the feeling of having an "imposed figure" or of being restrained for any reason.

 

Editor and photographer for the music magazine "Cult" and the webzine "Rockonline": he writes the interviews of Cali, No one is innocent, Ulrich Jon Roth (Scorpions), Shaka Ponk, Olivia Ruiz, Les tête raides, 7weeks, Mademoiselle K , Raoul Petite, la Phaze, Catherine Ringer, Skip the Use, Tagada Jones, Mass Hysteria. Through his association Réverbère productions, he took care of the programming of "cultural life" spaces and welcomed certain artists whose portraits he signed (Pierpoljak, Reuno de Lofofora, Tonton David, Pat Kebra. ..). Jean-François, songwriter and music lover (drums, percussion, etc.) started computer graphics by illustrating his first CDs and then produced the album cover for several artists (Les Infidèles, Antoine Rudi, Nazka, Dom Colmé, FDC, Lecks Inc ...)

 

MAKEUP, SHIBARI, COSTUMES
 

2013 : he starts the make-up activity (then Shibari the same year thanks to the advice of Philippe Boxis) to enrich his image personalization work. “The geographic distance from the capital or the big cities means having to adapt and evolve via the D system from“ A to Z ”. The infographic touch-ups only concern the superimposed plans, the backgrounds. .. but the models often serve as a support for his brushes or for different real materials without body reconstruction via data processing (real bodypainting / make-up). Other artists (hairdressers, props, jewelry designers ...) such as the sculptor Romain Bresson , the painter Elise Poisenot contributed to the realization of these pictorial projects.

 

From 2019 , he joined the Photoxyde collective with Marc Dubord: he participated in the European Nude Festival in Arles in May of the same year, then exhibited from September to November at “concorde art gallery” (Paris).

 

Actually, the computer screen, the brand of a lens, the characteristics of a device ... do not fascinate Jeff. Even if he remains aware of the need for technique, he is not a lover of his construction tools. What really animates it and to cross the ray of light which inhabits the true madmen of thousands of worlds.