Fred Mortagne, better known as French Fred, is a self-taught director and photographer, focusing his work mostly around skateboarding and life in the streets. As a young skateboarder and video enthusiast in the early 1990s, it felt natural for Fred to begin making videos himself. He created his first in Lyon, France in 1994, documenting the local scene, shining a light on young emerging talents and helping to put Lyon on the map as a skate destination.

His hard work led him to film top skateboarding professionals around the world. Well-known mostly for his work on the videos Menikmati for éS footwear, Flip’s Sorry, and a variety of work for the French skateboard company Cliche, he gained recognition for incorporating cinematic elements of mood and movement into shooting skateboarding, literally elevating the craft with his unique approach.

“While filming professionally, I began wanting to shoot still pictures,” Fred says. “I would see short scenes or moments that would be better fit for photography, moving images being pointless for instances that only have a split-second interest. In addition, I realized that the still photographers with me on the skate sessions would not shoot certain things that I could visualize in my mind, that I believed were interesting. That was the precious insight that informed me that I could shoot pictures that would be different than others.”

With years of trial and error, Fred developed a style of photography that was more or less his own. Through independent growth and discovery, Fred’s work would eventually give a subtle nod to his favorite masters of photojournalism: Henri Cartier-Bresson, Joseph Koudelka, Willy Ronis and Raymond Depardon. Fred continues to live with his family in east-central France, traveling and chasing the image, both still and in motion. And with the release of Attraper Au Vol, we pause to savor the true fruits of his journey so far. —Thomas Campbell

Fred Mortagne (French Fred)’s newest book, Attraper Au Vol, with introduction by Anton Corbijn, is currently out via Thomas Campbell’s Um Yeah Arts.

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Originally published in the February 2017 issue of Juxtapoz Magazine, on newsstands worldwide and in our web store.