“I am only interested in political beasts”

Jean-Claude Coutausse, 62, has had several lives: photographer for Agence France-Presse, he followed the news for the daily Release and the Contact Press Images agency, has covered numerous conflicts and done extensive reporting for magazines National Geographic and Geo, focusing in particular on voodoo. Since 2005, he has followed French political news to The world, and exhibited his photographs at the Visa pour l’image festival in Perpignan. He returns to the difficulties of the exercise, which is increasingly controlled, and its challenges.

Is there a specificity to political photography?

To be successful in this field, you have to devote yourself entirely to it. It takes time to weave the bonds that allow you to go a little further than the cords behind which we put all the other photographers. And physically too, you have to hold on. During the last official trip to Africa with Emmanuel Macron, we slept two and a half hours a night. The days are very long, we finish in the middle of the night, and then we have two hours of work on the images… The next day, the appointment is at 5 am to cross the whole city by bus. And before, we have to be “cleared”: everyone puts their bags, their equipment on a line and they pass a dog to sniff. It’s a bubble, you have to accept being in captivity, you’re transported like suitcases.

What interests you in politics?

Me, I’m only interested in the “Top Guns”, the political beasts, not the small deputies, the big notables who are content with a post of minister. Aiming for the supreme power, the Elysée, is incredible, it means accepting to devote your whole life to this, to live under permanent police escort. These people, I wouldn’t say they fascinate me, but they interest me. I’m here to say in a journalistic way how I see them, to find a visual writing that expresses what happens at the top of power. The goal is to get closer to the great man and catch a little bit of his essence. It’s always very subtle and sometimes there’s very little time to do it before you get nabbed by the snare.

By communicators?

Yes, the press attachés: we live together, we take the same planes, but it’s a balance of power. We spend the day yelling at each other and in the evening we drink a beer. You have to fight for space, for time. It’s normal, they are communicators. We are paid to tell the truth, we will never succeed because it does not exist, and they are paid to lie and they always succeed!

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