On The Street, Seoul... Yuna X Gaëlle Charlot Illustration

Well...being self confident enough to let it go is for me the best way I've found to start over again every day... and living one day at a time!
- Gaëlle Charlot


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Illustration by Gaëlle Charlot

Hi Gaëlle, can you do a quick introduction for yourself - who you are, where you're from, what you do?

I am a French illustrator, based in Montpellier, South of France, for 5 years now. Before that, I used to live in Tokyo for two years, Grenoble (France), Orleans where I studied, but I come from Auvergne, in the center of France. I had the chance to move and have kids, and working in the meantime allows me to see my illustrations as a part of my life, and not feel too much pressure about "being good".

You've got a very distinctive style of illustration, it's very cool. How did your style develop?

Thank you! It's very pleasant to hear!

Basically, I am not very good at drawing and I spent lot of time trying to learn new things and improve my level. But then I thought it would be better to stop fighting with myself and just doing what I know! I work with my failures... this provides me a kind of liberty; it seems the best way to move on. I use different techniques - paint, ink, collage - but still keeping in mind that it must be fun to do.

Looking at your portfolio, all of your illustrations with people have very strong personalities and characters, sometimes a bit mysterious and/or abstract too. Do you have a strong idea of the person before you start to draw?

Not really. I've been told that the characters were ugly, disturbing, frightening... as much as I can, I just want them to have personality, and I like to add details that could be like evidence of their mind and thoughts. But it comes while I draw, I don't really think about it.

And I'm curious - is there something of yourself in your illustrations and the people you draw? I always think that any creative arts must have a bit of the artist/creator invested in it?

I think you are right! When you know the face behind the name of an artist, you obviously find a strange similarity.

As far as I am concerned, I sometimes use a mirror, when I need a particular expression or point of view or just practicing. Then I think we can say that some of the faces have something of mine.

Do you have any particular artists or illustrators that have inspired you?

Well, I've got a lot! I remembered one of my first illustration crush: Pierre Mornet. It was a revelation! It's hard to make a list, but I can say: Jillian Tamaki, Joanna Concejo, Brecht Evens, James Jean's sketchbooks, Isabelle Arsenault, Camilla Engman for the last seen; David Hockney, Ingres, Picasso... there may be others, but I can't remember them all right now!

Where would you like your illustration journey to take you? Are there any projects that would be a dream to complete?

I would be very happy to work on something that would be between literature and comics, a kind of picture book but not for children... I don't have something specific in mind but making illustrated novel books would sure fit me. I started to work a while ago with a friend on a illustrated version of "We have always lived in the castle" by Shirley Jackson. I wish this project could come to light, one day!

And finally, do you have any particular quotes or sayings that really define who you are and what you do?

Well...being self confident enough to let it go is for me the best way I've found to start over again every day... and living one day at a time!

by Gaëlle Charlot
Portfolio at www.fougougou.com

On The Street, Seoul... Seung Yi Ha

When the mouse laughs at the cat there is a hole nearby
- Nigerian proverb


It feels like such a cat and mouse game sometimes when I go after people. Because when I see them, perhaps they've walked toward me and I've only made up my mind just after we've passed each other, so I have to double back and race off to get back in front to take another look. Then maybe we're on a busy street, so I'm walking along trying to guess when they'll turn down a side street, but at the same time I don't want to look back too many times or make it too obvious - I don't want them to become self-conscious/weirded out by the creepy freak a.k.a. myself.

But when it comes together, when they turn down that street just when I thought they would, when that wall comes up just when I wanted it to, when they're really happy to be photographed and when the photograph turns out 'real nice' just like I wanted it to be, then all is good, right?

On The Street, Seoul... Wangjunsik

Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me
- Carol Burnett

On The Street, Seoul... In

Today is either the beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning. Today we are making history
- Eckhard Pfeiffer


It's such a gorgeous thing when you've clearly put someone on the spot and it's caught them off guard a bit, like it's an unexpected thing (of course) and I suppose the immediacy of it makes them a bit shy or a bit what the..., and despite that the gorgeous bit comes as they manage to compose themselves and come through with this awesome look that photographs great and you think "yeah, that's good, that's really good, we've got it". It's really very special, because so long as you get that one photograph then it's done and it's going to be there forever, so that one moment of stillness just does it all.

On The Street, Seoul... Yerimsong

Love falls in love with love;
comes like an echo sounding back,
searches its mirrored shadow
within a look
- Mocco Wollert


Sometimes a line can be so perfectly drawn and formed that just following it is quite a sensual experience, something very loving. I mean, it's not really about lines at all, it's the movement that they contain, the flow. The movement and flow of lines can contain the whole essence and feeling of a look. After all, what else is form and structure unless it is marked by lines?

On The Street, Seoul... Jee Youn Lee

Also, stick around. Don't lose your heart, just keep going, keep at it
- Mark Ruffalo


I must admit that having been out of action for 19 days kind of left me wondering if I could get started and get into it again. In fact, I was actually quite concerned that it was all over, like for real over. But true to form, as soon as I see someone that takes my eye, everything seems to go automatic and suddenly this whole photography thing is happening. Which I'm glad of, because otherwise I'd be left wondering what the hell happened to suddenly stop doing what I thought I loved doing.

On The Street, Taipei... Chen & Jack: Overalls

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work
- Thomas Edison

On The Street, Taipei... Michelle

Don't be afraid to expand yourself, to step out of your comfort zone. That's where the joy and the adventure lie
- Herbie Hancock


I've just literally arrived back into Seoul from a 19 day business trip to the States and while I managed to get back to our place, drop off my stuff and have a shower before going out for a walk, I'm a bit too jet lagged to get back into taking some photos today. I've been quite amazed that I've managed to keep this going while away, although I've been doing all these photos while having a full time and totally unrelated job for almost two and a half years now, so it becomes easier to manage.

And in some ways I like having time away. It's certainly tough being apart from Stacey and while it's great to be busy with work and earning the dollars to keep life going, business trips are always a lot of effort - nothing but offices and hotels - but at the same time I feel like I get to stop and reflect, step out for a bit from normal life and think about it all. But I'm back now, so time to get on with it again, take the reflections and move forward from there.

On The Street, Taipei... Nidi

For me it was less a first memory of being a designer and more about wanting to look distinctive. As a child I would take large men’s clothing pieces and then either pin or sew them into folded shapes for myself. The idea of myself as a kind of visual test subject is the first way I related to fashion
- Alexa Adams of Ohne Titel


I'm not so sure that the world works in a way that you say "I want to be this thing" like a particular profession or job or pursuit and then you become it, like it's more the title than the actual heart and soul of whatever that thing is.

I think it's more like having these skills and interests that you feel very strongly about and then finding a way to make them into something useful; going out and discovering what possible ways exist to use that mix and put yourself to good use. In many ways, I think a lot of my skill sets work well for doing this, but I'd never really thought (and still don't) that I wanted to be a photographer, it just seems to work and I find very little resistance - just a whole lot of very natural attraction and resonance.

On The Street, Seoul... Gwen

I came to this world with nothing
and I leave with nothing but love
everything else is just borrowed
- Mike Skinner / The Streets


It's amazing how I've really kept posting these photographs that I've loved taking, yet when I write about stuff I feel like it's more about me in some respects. But then, everything is. It's my life. This is just part of my life. And more and more what I learn through living and through doing this is that the output is really nothing compared to the experience that created the output. There is nothing I can make or own or have that is as good as simply living and enjoying the process of living. It's why I keep doing this - I don't really care so much about posting photographs on a blog or a website, the bit I love is taking them. The bit I love is the living, not the looking back on the living.

On The Street, Taipei... Evonne

On The Street, Seoul... Kim Seung Hwan

Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness
- Sun Tzu


I think it's very necessary to be open enough to give people a taste of who and what you are, but also a little bit closed so that there's always a bit more left unknown and unseen. That way, people will always want you, yet through not being able to have you entirely will never really get bored of wanting you. I have no idea why I wanted to write that, but I just did so it must mean something.

On The Street, Seoul... Heybin Kim

An artist carries on throughout his life a mysterious, uninterrupted conversation with his public
- Maurice Chevalier

On The Street, Seoul... Baek

It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice
- Alyssa Milano, John Cassis or Scooter



It's just so nice when I see someone on the street and there's the style thing going on, but also I think "oh, they look nice", like, a nice person. And then I go up and find that they are nice. I mean it sounds a simple thing to say, but I've certainly met people who look good, look nice and when you talk to them it's not how they are at all, like maybe they're stuck up or just not very friendly and you think "wow, got that wrong".

So it's good to meet nice people, because at the end of the day that is the point - meet nice and cool people, and be a nice and cool person yourself. If the world was divided into nice/cool people on one side and stylish people on the other, and if they were mutually exclusive i.e. nice/cool people couldn't be stylish and stylish people couldn't be nice/cool, I know exactly which side I'd want to be standing on.

On The Street, Seoul... Jang

I am not feeling any better because I cannot stay in bed, having constant cause for walking. They say I leave at night by the window of my tower, hanging from a red umbrella with which I set fire to the forest!
- Camille Claudel


Even though it was raining, at first he kind of went to put the umbrella down, but I was like "no way! the umbrella makes it". I think that's always a bit of a criteria when it's raining - look for the person with the umbrella that goes with what they're wearing and then photograph them with it.