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."
It was also around this time in 1997 that Bitton met acclaimed director Quentin Tarantino. In addition to his work in the music industry, Bitton had decided to put together a poster book from Blaxploitation films. When he heard Tarantino was planning something similar, Bitton took it upon himself to go out to L.A. and meet his team, impressing upon them the importance of them doing a book together. Tarantino agreed instantly, bonding with Bitton over their shared love of the genre, and eventually having him design film posters for his company. From there, Bitton’s career simply exploded. Over the next fifteen years, he worked as the art director and designer on over 750 albums, books and posters. His own book of photography from his Leica exhibition "Darker Than Blue" was published and sold out in late 2016. He is currently working on a book of rare Prince photography from 1984 as well as consulting on the new "Purple Rain" box set and Deluxe Edition. The "Darker Than Blue" exhibit, which opened in Los Angeles in 2016, traveled to Boston in April 2017 and was shown at the Leica Gallery Miami in June 2017 and at the Leica Gallery Frankfurt from February 9, 2018 until April 7, 2018.
