Biographie

Jean-Pierre Godeaut

Né à Versailles en 1946. Vit et travaille à Paris.
Fils de diplomate, il passe son enfance entre les jardins du Luxembourg à Paris et les rives du Nil, en Egypte, de ce séjour au Moyent-Orient, il conservera la passion des voyages, le goût immodéré des images, et un regard…
Il fait ses premières photos à sept ans.
Etudes secondaires au collège Stanislas (Paris).
Ecole Met de Penningen (premier atelier de photographie 1966).

Jean-Pierre Godeaut was born in Versailles in 1946. After living in his youth in Middle Eastern countries,
in 1965 he became the assistant of fashion photographer (Franck Horvat). Thereafter, he was associated with several magazines devoted to decorative arts,
especially architecture and interior decoration (Interiors, Vogue, Elle…). In 1980, he discovered the beauty and potentialities of panoramic photography. For him, panoramic vision (both as perception and as photographs) corresponds to the original emotion one receives from the spaces and objects that one discovers with one’s own eyes. This technique, which extends well beyond the “wideangle” one, helps recreate perfectly the gigantic format of Versailles castle’s parks and gardens, which he remembers from his childhood with nostalgia. He loves the grandeur and the serenity of walking in the empty park, imagining himself as a personal guest of Louis XIV.
Françoise Ayxandri, 
Extract from the catalogue : «Versailles, Paris d’images Photographs 1852-1982 »