Biography
“I feel that his photographs completely capture the essence of what and who I am at that moment and he has the ability to bend the atmosphere which brings an abstract quality to the photograph.”
—Lenny Kravitz
“He weaves himself into the fabric of the moment. He understands their significance,
and treats them as precious memories as they are happening.”
—Dave Chappelle
For two-time Grammy-winning artist and Leica Camera ambassador Mathieu Bitton, what you hear and what you see are one in the same. Colors and music notes have similar shades; lyrics and hand-drawn lines have similar emotional messages. Each genre of music in Bitton’s collection has its own visual world in his head – jazz takes on certain hues, while rock n’ roll is another vibrant texture completely. For Bitton, one simply does not exist without the other. And this special way of merging both mediums is what has lead Mathieu Bitton to be one of the music world’s most sought-after designers, creating album covers and packaging, as well as videos, photographs, logos and more for some of the most iconic artists and records of the last century, in addition to earning him two Grammy wins as a producer as well as a nomination for his artistic achievement. His vast and vast body of work has seen him photographing, designing album art and poster art for a who’s who of musical history, including Lenny Kravitz, Prince, Jack White, Quincy Jones, Travis Scott, Earth, Wind & Fire, Erykah Badu, Sting, John Mayer, Lady Gaga, The Rolling Stones, Kendrick Lamar, D’Angelo, Lauryn Hill, Jane’s Addiction, George Clinton as well as art directing and designing legacy projects for Miles Davis (he designed the incredible packaging to the Bitches’ Brew 40th Anniversary Edition box set), Marvin Gaye, Bob Marley, James Brown, ,Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Dolly Parton and many more. If there’s an album cover that moves you, inspires you or impacts you, the odds are pretty high that Mathieu Bitton created it.
Born in Paris, Bitton’s cultural upbringing was as varied as his music collection; his passions mostly centered around R&B, the Dada Surrealism movement, 1920’s Jazz Age art and France’s first real rock star Serge Gainsbourg. “Growing up in Paris, you are surrounded by art and architecture, museums everywhere. Everything is visual, from street sign design to cars, theaters and posters on the walls. But I think the black music interest came when I picked up my dad’s Screaming Jay Hawkins LP,” explains Bitton. “And all those visuals were so stunning to me, more shocking, contrast-y and inherently controversial.” Bitton fell in love with the synergistic world the album created for him, but aurally and visually, and began obsessively collecting albums at a young age, scouring Parisian flea markets on the weekends to buy R&B, soundtrack, soul, jazz and funk 45’s and LP’s, sometimes purchasing them solely for their album covers. This enthusiasm for African-American music extended itself to another medium that, like jazz and R&B, perfectly merged its own brilliant visual references and sounds to carve out its own cultural corner: Blaxploitation films. As with his other interests, Bitton was instantly drawn to the extremes and musical textures of the genre. “To me, Blaxploitation is another type of surrealism. The drive comes from the combination of absurd, louder and larger than life egos, colorful and often ridiculous characters. But it started with the soundtracks, and as I got older, I built a massive collection of original film posters. I think those have influenced me more than anything.”
With these influences worn squarely on his sleeve, in 1982, Bitton took a trip to Los Angeles at age 9 to visit his mother, who had moved there. It was this trip that changed everything for Bitton, merging his disparate interests into one fully-formed idea that opened a path to where he is today. Yes, on this particular jaunt from Paris to Los Angeles, Bitton was truly shaken to the core by his discovery: he found Prince.
”I heard the album 1999 and my life was changed forever,” Bitton says. “I was a big Michael Jackson fan, like everyone else then, but Prince encompassed everything I loved about music, visual art, performance and perversion, something I’d started studying through Serge Gainsbourg, my first musical idol. He was everything I loved about everything I loved, black or white. The perfect mix. And he played every instrument on his albums, which fascinated me. The best feeling in the world was being able to buy my own tickets to my first Prince concert at the Zenith in Paris in 1986. It was like seeing the best of what I’d missed in the years prior to my birth. He was Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone, James Brown, Marvin Gaye and Mozart all wrapped into one.”
Deciding he had to be in the music industry, in 1987 Bitton moved at age 14 to Los Angeles, bringing his extensive Prince collection with him, and eventually starting a Prince fanzine, which marked his first foray designing. Despite his love of American music, he found inspiration lacking in L.A. upon his move. “Unlike Paris, I found design in general very underwhelming in L.A. But I think my aesthetic sensibilities were born in Paris and enhanced in America. From the time I was little, I was a big fan of Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Tristan Tzara, Francis Picabia, and others. Combining that with the album covers, photographic prints and posters that graced my walls, I came up with a perfectly flawed blend that became my aesthetic.”
Moving to New York City to continue his studies at NYU, this time focusing on journalism, Bitton took a job at the design and concept firm Graj + Gustavsen in 1993, which helped him pay for his schooling. Like all of the best artists, Bitton’s talent and incredible creative eye for merging music and graphics were not recognized at first. He freelanced in the fashion industry, working as an art director and graphic designer, handling everything from marketing to hang tags to labels, t-shirt designs, embroidery designs and more. He knew deep down that he wanted to create for the music world, but also knew he had to go through a natural progression of design jobs to get there. He also began managing a band on the side, eventually meeting music industry executives and label people, some of whom learned of his other life in graphic design. A friend at Mercury/Polygram Records asked if he would do a logo for her label Loose Cannon; and thus, Bitton’s design ascent within the music industry began.
Suddenly, by the late-90’s, Bitton was one of the most sought-after artists within the music community. He began designing for Polygram Records, which led to other jobs immediately. “It became a virus; other people would see the work, word of mouth,” he explains. “I started doing projects with artists that I was very passionate about, like Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, James Brown. And I collected all these records, so it was surreal. Truly surreal.”
From there, Bitton’s career simply exploded. Over the next twenty years, he worked as the art director and designer on over 850 albums, books and posters. He created dozens of corporate, band and event logos, including the 2008 election campaign design for youth activist organization Rock The Vote, as well as the re-launched BMG label Buddha Records, Tommy Mottola’s Casablanca Records and Strummer Records (Universal). He also became one of the film industry’s leading soundtrack designers, working on art for films such as Martin Scorsese’s The Departed, Franchises such as Transformers, Harry Potter, Spiderman and The Terminator, Kevin McDonald’s Marley documentary on the reggae legend and most recently the Aretha Franklin concert film Amazing Grace [Neon]. He designed a book and soundtrack for the Shane Black film The Nice Guys starring Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe. He was commissioned by lauded artist Philippe Starck to paint and design murals at his redesigned East/West Recording Studio in Hollywood, collaborating with Ara Starck. He was asked by acclaimed producer Rick Rubin to design a logo for Laird Hamilton, which Rubin proclaimed looked “really amazing, classic and timeless.” He has been invited to appear numerous times on the BBC’s radio shows as one of the premiere voices about black art and film culture, being included in documentaries about Curtis Mayfield, Iceberg Slim, Blaxploitation and more. Bitton even designed a bottle of rosé wine for Morton’s Steak House and a wine bottle for Ledbetter Wines.
Over the past decade, Bitton has become an avid Leica user and began working more within photography and film, something that evolved out of an ongoing relationship with acclaimed rocker Lenny Kravitz. “Film is a natural medium for me,” Bitton says. “It’s photography and sound mixed into one. I started making little videos and behind the scenes movies for artists I managed or was an art director for. I made a music video for the ‘Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign To Save Darfur’ that was selected by Warner Bros. as the bonus iTunes video for the project. I have known Lenny since I was a kid and we’ve stayed in touch on and off over the years. It wasn’t until we reconnected in Paris in 2008, through our mutual friend Jean-Baptiste Mondino, that we clicked creatively.” Bitton was asked to produce and create the packaging for the 20th anniversary re-edition of Kravitz’s seminal recording Let Love Rule, and eventually started photographing Kravitz on the road, creating his tour merchandise designs and joining him every night to document the tour. He also produced and designed the deluxe editions of Kravitz’s opus Mama Said and the global smash hit Are you Gonna Go My Way, as well as completing his first highly-praised feature length film on Kravitz, Looking Back On Love. The film reached #4 on the iTunes charts. Bitton also designed and photographed Kravitz’s 2015 rock-fueled “Strut,” and his latest album “Raise Vibration.” He directed several music videos for the latter and also directed a Dom Perginon commercial featuring Kravitz along with daughter Zoe, Susan Sarandon, Harvey Keitel and other major celebrities.
In 2015, Bitton became consulting Art Director, Designer and Photographer for Blue Note Records, working on projects for legends Dr. Lonnie Smith (Evolution & All In My Mind), Trombone Shorty (Parking Lot Symphony), Robert Glasper (ArtScience) and SweetPea Atkinson (You’re Gonna Get What You Deserve), Robert Glasper Experience [ArtScience] as well as new artists like Prince’s last protégé Kandace Springs (Soul Eyes), Lionel Loueke (Gaîa) and Kendrick Scott Oracle (We Are The Drum). He also designed the Miles Davis releases Take Off: The Complete Blue Note Albums and Enigma.
He has also designed several books for Rizzoli including the Lenny Kravitz coffee table book, Bob Dylan’s “NYC 1961-1964,”“The Nice Guys” for the 2016 Shane Black film of the same name starring Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe and most recently the upcoming “Together Forever: Run-DMC & Beastie Boys by Glen E. Friedman.” His own book of photography from his Leica exhibition “Darker Than Blue” was published and sold out in late 2020. He is currently working on a book of rare Prince photography from 1984. He consulted on the recent Prince projects: “Purple Rain,” “1999” and “Sign O’ The Times” (for which he also contributed liner notes) box sets and Deluxe Editions, posthumous “Prince – Originals” and “Piano & A Microphone 1983” and was hired as Art Director and Designer on the last three Prince releases: “Welcome 2 America,” “Prince & The Revolution Live! 1985” and “Diamonds & Pearls” box sets.
The “Darker Than Blue” exhibit, which opened in Los Angeles in 2016, recently traveled to Boston (2017), Miami (2017), Frankfurt, Germany (2018) and most recently at the Leica Gallery at the newly opened Leitz Park II in Wetzlar, Germany (2019). He is also working as official photographer for comedian Dave Chappelle and shot the photos for all seven of his award-winning Netflix specials as well as the five Chappelle Grammy-winning Comedy Albums and worked as a photographer on the Netflix series: Jerry Seinfeld series “Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee,” David Letterman’s “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction” and the new Netflix specials for Matt Rife, Earthquake, Luenell, Donnell Rawlings and Tony Woods as wells the Bob Saget Tribute special “Dirty Daddy.”
His newest Leica exhibit “Paris Blues: A Decade of Moments and Reflections” was the most attended Leica opening to date. To quote the Los Angeles Times: “a line runs down the block with people waiting two hours to get into the star-studded event where Lenny Kravitz, Dave Chappelle and other famous folks including actor Jason Momoa, comedian Chris Rock and music producer and songwriter Jimmy Jam are all in attendance. With images taken in Paris over the last 10 years, “Paris Blues” illustrates Bitton’s longing for his hometown, through his unique lens, presenting photos that reflect his childhood, including an image of the building he grew up in and a photo of a crêperie, which Bitton titled “Barbe à Papa” as per his childhood obsession with children’s book character Barbapapa. The exhibition also features candid images of celebrities like Kravitz and Chappelle, reflecting the career Bitton carved out in the United States but which often brings him back to his roots in the City of Light.”
Ultimately, regardless of the medium, Bitton always comes back to music. “The one thing I have been told over and over – which I think is why I’ve been chosen to do such amazing projects – is that they are very often related to my passions and the music I know inside out,” Bitton says. “I can’t tell you how many times my personal record collection has been used for a reissue or a box set or compilation. I listen to the music constantly when I work on a project. With the Miles Davis Bitches Brew 40th Anniversary Collector’s Edition project, for example, I read all the liner notes before starting it. I am told this is highly unusual for a designer, but it’s normal to me to be immersed in any project on which I am working.” It is this immersion that won him a Grammy nomination for a massive Jane’s Addiction boxed set, packed with voodoo dolls, tarot cards, miniature sculptures and more within a wooden cabinet replica box, and continues to make him one of music world’s most important players.
His next book “Paris Blues” will be available this winter with a foreword by Naomi Campbell.
In 2012, Bitton received one of France’s highest decorations, the medal of Chevalier Dans L’Ordre Des Arts & Lettres (Knight in the order of arts and letters) from the French Republic.
-Jen Appel
Praise for Mathieu Bitton’s work continues to reverberate through the music industry and beyond…
“There are a lot of great designers out there, but there are very few, if any, who have the depth of design, music, and culture that Mathieu has. He can design the cover, take the picture, do the website, do the film and remix the single…and he is funny too!” -Jeff Ayeroff, legendary art director and chairman at A&M, Virgin, Warner Bros. Records and the WORK Group
“The logo he designed for Laird Hamilton and I is really amazing. I gave it to Laird as a gift and he loved it. It looks classic and timeless to me.” Rick Rubin
“Mathieu is not only a talented designer but a passionate supporter, believer and organizer for our cause. He brought our mission to life through his work in 2008 and he continues to be an invaluable part of our team. His energy, dedication and creativity helped make 2008 the most successful year in Rock the Vote’s 20-year history and we are lucky to consider him part of our organization’s family.” – Heather Smith, Rock The Vote President
“Mathieu takes photos that are timeless, and he himself is timeless in what he does. He’s a photographer or an artist of a generation. His work is transcendent and transcends time — it will be here forever.” –Common
“Mathieu’s innovative design has recaptured the original cutting edge design of Bitches Brew and as further expanded upon it, taking it in a modern direction that stays true to the music of Miles! We are eternally grateful!” -Erin Davis (son of Miles Davis)
“My friend Mathieu is an art director of vision and taste. I’ve known him since he first entered the American rock art arena: his ambition and energy are boundless, as indeed is his talent, and like fine French wine, he only gets better with age!!” -Mick Rock, legendary music photographer
““When you live inside your own skin for a while, you think you know yourself. Then a photographer like Mathieu comes along and shows you things you never knew. Mathieu’s photos not only capture past moments, but liberate details in those moments from captivity.” —Questlove