Insights Focus

Thierry Chantegret is a photographer. In 2021, he joined the team of the Controller-General for Places of Deprivation of Liberty (CGLPL). This independent administrative authority is permitted to visit any facility where people are imprisoned: psychiatric hospitals, police custody cells, closed educational centres, detention centres, and prisons. He comments two of his photos,taken during a visit at the Toulouse-Seysses prison.

“You should take a picture, it’s disgusting”

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Thierry Chantegret

Photographer

Thierry Chantegret has made photography his life’s work since he was 19 years old. He attended a photography school in Toulouse before becoming assistant fashion photographer, a career that included a great deal of travelling. He then worked for a marketing agency, and then, in a laboratory, where, among other things, he created exhibition prints for photographers from the Magnum agency. For the past 20 years, he has focused on his work as an author: institutional commissions, internships, exhibitions, and in particular, workshops in schools.
In 2021, he joined the team of the Controller-General for Places of Deprivation of Liberty (CGLPL). This independent administrative authority is permitted to visit any facility where people are imprisoned: psychiatric hospitals, police custody cells, closed educational centres, detention centres, and prisons. The visits are documented in reports that describe prisoners’ living conditions in detail.