Sir Mix-a-Lot – Gregoire Ganter’s Photo Sampling – A thru Zed

We're psyched to chat with Gregoire Ganter, Postcard Project judge and photographer extraordinaire. His signature photography integrates vibrant city snippets and scapes with "found" letters of all fonts, shapes and sizes, spelling a name or visually singing the alphabet. His work is nostalgic, youthful and fun, and gives a pop to a wall, whether through a small print on plexi or a super sized wood framed a-through-z. His work is a hot property at Babesta (it is the talk of the East wall @ Cribz) so we thought it would be cool to find out how all the magic happens.

(Babesta) What are your first photo memories?

(Gregoire) The first photo I ever took – I distinctly remember my father's camera, a Canon Ae1, top of the line back then.  I also remember a junky camera I had which you had to squeeze together (shotgun style) to advance to the next frame in the late 70's.  My first relevant image was probably a collage I shot of the cube in Astor Place.  I was in high school so it must have been around 1986 or so.  I recently found it in my parents' attic.  My first alphabet image was one I did for my daughter in 2004 for her first birthday.

(Babesta) How'd you know you'd be an artist?

(Gregoire) Diverse circumstances led me towards the art world in 2000.  I had always shot images and hung them in my apartment.  Following the suggestion of a few friends, [i considered] a career change from banking, and after meeting my wife, I decide to give it a shot for real.  I started with a show in our apartment, and took off from there. 

(Babesta) Give me the scoop on Lea's Alphabet. . .

(Gregoire) I started Lea's Alphabets after the birth of my first daughter, Lea, in 2003.  We just could not find decoration for her room which seemed appropriate.  As first time parents, we were for some reason very concerned about the alphabet and I started noticing and collecting letters on my daily shoots.  The concept grew from there. 

(Babesta) What do you love about your work?

(Gregoire) I love working in the city, strolling around and discovering something that I may have missed – an old sign, mural or some new street art.   

(Babesta) What's your inspiration?

(Gregoire) As cheesy as it sounds, my 2 daughters and this city (New York) are probably my most relevant inspirations.

(Babesta) Thanks for being a judge for the Postcard Project. It goes without saying that the kids did a Fantastic job! What did you most enjoy about seeing nearly 100 kids' takes on Lower Manhattan?

(Gregoire) It was fun to see the wide range of shots the kids took.  I looked at them first on the computer and made my selection that way.  Today I saw them in the store window assembled as a group and I noticed a few more that seemed really interesting. 

(Babesta) No kidding! See you tomorrow for the final postcard finalist selection!

The winners of the Postcard Project will be unveiled next week. Stay tuned!

To check out Gregoire Ganter's artwork, stop by Babesta Cribz, 56 Warren Street, NYC or call us at 646 290 5508.