In this book, the first ever to be published in Portuguese, the photographer’s work is re-examined by focusing on two of the artist’s favourite themes : air and water. Lartigue’s zest for life is evident and alternately expressed by both calm and contemplation, and by the giddiness that comes from speed and flight, capers and dives: the stirring of life.

Jacques Henri Lartigue’s work has been frequently exhibited and published throughout the world since it was donated to the State in 1979. We are well acquainted with it and yet critical appraisal has endlessly wavered between nostalgia and awe, since he is both an amateur intent on capturing the charm of the Belle Epoque and one of the inventors of modern photography.

There is a sense for this duality in the book right from the start in the images of a world filled with joy as seen through Lartigue’s resolutely optimistic eye. His photographs represent a painstaking and thorough narrative of his life : games, family outings, friends’ portraits, sporting and social events… Lartigue’s unique talent lies in his ability to successfully capture the most fleeting moments, particularly people and objects in motion at that exhilarating split second when they are suspended in midair: playful antics, speeding automobiles, flying machines, summersaults and high dives…

An observer as well as a narrator of a privileged life even in less prosperous times, Lartigue meticulously indexes all those moments with the ultimate purpose of putting them in his beloved albums.

“D’air et d’eau” will be presented in conjunction with a major exhibition at the Moreira Salles Institute in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil which opens on June 14^th, 2013.

In “EScales autour du monde”, Francisca Mattéoli explores the Vuitton heir’s travels in 21 stopovers around the world. Her book contains a few of Lartigue’s photographs that give us a feel for what journeys were like in those days.

« Ever since I was little, I’ve suffered from the fact that all the delightful things in life eventually fade from my memory » comments Lartigue in his 1965 diary. Caught between delightful daily experiences and a flagging memory, passionnate about life but pained when faced with the transcient nature of things, it didn’t take much convincing for Lartigue to start, and to continue recording for 80 years, the thousands of fleeting moments he has come to charm us with.

Jacques learned photography from his father as early as 1900. Jacques’ enthousiasm prompted his father to give him his first camera in 1902 when he was 8 years old. From that day on, the young boy never ceased taking photos of automobile outings, family holidays and of his older brother Maurice’s (nicknamed Zissou) inventions.

Both brothers were passionnate about automobiles, aviation pioneers and all the fast-growing sports in those days. Jacques recorded all of it with his camera. As an adult, he continued to attend sporting and high society events and to indulge in several elitist sports himself such as skiing, skating, tennis, golf…

Still, photography was not enough for Jacques who was ever so intent on slowing down the passage of time. How could one capture all, say all, in an image that lasted a few seconds ? Hence, he began to keep a diary and would do so his whole life. He furthermore arranged and wrote captions for his photos (from 1902 to 1986) and filled 135 large albums : a 14 423 page photo journal of the 20th century.

The paradox : Lartique is an amateur photographer who falls into no existing category in the history of photography but is nevertheless revealed at 69 by an exhibition of his work in New York’s Museum of Modern Art and by a photo spread in Life magazine in 1963.

“Lartigue in Wonder” will be held until May 26th, 2013 at the Château de Tours Jeu de Paume.

Lartigue’s photo albums were shown for the first time at the Centre Pompidou in 2003. The only known autobiographical photography endeavour to this day, in addition to being an unprecedented testimonial of the past century, it’s also a key to thoroughly understanding Lartigue’s particular approach. In conjunction with the exhibition, a catalog was published in which the photographs were shown as they were originally presented in the horizontal albums.  It rapidly sold out and was reprinted several times in its initial format. Today, Seuil Publishing has come out with a smaller size version with the same content.

The new October 2012 edition

A comprehensive publication of the photographs with their subtle details and precise layout finally reveals what everyone expected to see in Lartigue’s work : a meaningful chronological unfurling of the photographs in the context in which they were produced and arranged by the brilliant amateur photographer considered by American critics since 1963 to be one of the greatest photographers in his day.

How does one explain the fact that Jacques Henri Lartigue suddenly became one of the icons of 20th century photography ? In his essay, Kevin Moore reviews Lartigue’s background and the process that established him as a myth and thus puts an end to the more simplistic and naive view of the artist’s work. Lartigue is not, as commonly accepted, a merely talented amateur who set to capture the modern, mechanical world of his time as well as the happy moments of his life. A pioneer in his field, he was ahead of his time by the way he combined certain forms of visual culture (amateur photography, illustrated press, cinema) and fine art photography. Moore dispels all misgivings that until now prevented Lartigue to be revealed in his full glory and restores him to his rightful place in the history of photography.

Kevin Moore is an independent scholar and curator and has worked in the curatorial departments at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and at Harvard’s Fogg Art Museum. He is a specialist in the history of photography and is also the author of Starburst: Color Photography in America 1970-1980 (Hatje Cantz, 2010).

“Le Palais Lumière” in Evian presents an exhibition of artistic expressions on love and how it appears and evolves. Romain Gary once said : “Love is like going on an adventure without a map or a compass, only caution will get you lost.” True to these words, the exhibition presents a bold selection of more than 350 paintings, drawings, illustrations, letters, photographs and videos.

Seven of JH Lartigue’s photographs and several diary excerpts help illustrate the idea of “Couple intimacy”, one of the eight themes of the exhibition. Although intimacy is a common theme nowadays, Lartigue made it a part of his work very early on. He consistently documented his love life and hence his albums contain photographs of different women, each one corresponding to a specific time in his life. He was intent on producing a glorified rendition of each subject and her personality. However, he tried to be more objective in his diary in which he expressed his inner emotions and reflexions on love, whether they were regarding the first spark or a feeling of disenchantment.

“L’art d’aimer, de la séduction à la volupté”… four fitting words that could easily sum up Lartigue and his work.

From June 16th, to September 23rd, 2012

Palais Lumière

rue du Port

74500 Evian – France

Tél. 00 33 4 50 83 15 90

1917 addresses the theme of artistic creation in wartime, on the scale of that one “impossible year” [1] during which the world floundered in devastating conflict.

This vast multidisciplinary exhibition provides an instant view of every field of creativity during this year of the First World War.  It asks what such a narrow, precise context as a single year might mean for creative activity, while avoiding the pitfalls of expectations and assumptions as to the nature of wartime art.

1917 was a year of extreme diversity in artistic production.  The exhibition sets out to convey this by illustrating artists’ various positions relative to the battlefront and the multiple forms their work took. Alongside established artists who drew inspiration more or less directly from world affairs were the amateur artists who felt the need to respond to the trials of war through creative expression, not least in the trench art (made from shells and weapons) which is one of the highlights of the exhibition.  Equally important are the war artists who were sent to the front to record events and bring back images of battle, and the many individuals who, as eyewitnesses, left their memory of the conflict for posterity.

[1] Jean-Jacques Becker, 1917 en Europe : l’année impossible (Europe in 1917:  the impossible year). Brussels, Éditions Complexe, 1997.

Jacques Henri Lartigue also took part in Picasso’s « photo-mania ». Lartigue friends, Jeanne and Albert Creff, introduced him to Picasso in 1955 in Antibes and took him to Picasso’s villa in Cannes where Jeanne Creff worked as a doctor. Lartigue must have been inspired since he took more than one hundred black and white and color photos of Picasso in one day. Picasso went along readily as usual and even let Lartigue take pictures of him during his acupuncture session with Jeanne Creff. The pictures of Picasso from that day take up more than half of Lartigue’s 1955 photo album. There are other pictures of Picasso holding a paintbrush, posing with Jeanne Creff, and with Jean Cocteau at a bullfight in Vallauris. There are even several pictures of Lartigue himself, having entrusted his camera to his wife Florette. The photographs in the album are in no particular order… posed, formal ones are displayed side by side with candid snapshots… the main focus nevertheless, remains the intensely photogenic master.

The exhibit is currently shown in the Malaga Picasso Museum in Spain until June 10^th 2012. The catalog is available from Hatje Cantz.

“The floating world of Jacques Henri Lartigue (1894-1986)”, is the first major retrospective exhibition of the photographer’s work presented in Spain. The exhibition contains more than 230 documents, vintage and modern prints, stereoscopic views, autochromes, albums and original diaries, cameras (rarely entrusted)…all such remembrances in order to grasp the magical significance of Lartigue’s photography.

Ours is an unprecedented approach “in an attempt to appreciate photographs that have come to delight us by their graceful beauty, but to nevertheless understand the underlying unease they may convey. Lartigue fits in with his contemporaries, but he is above all an artist with an acute sensibility, and thus his work depicts light heartedness and joy but also the concerns of a rapidly changing era” says Maryse Cordesse, the J.H. Lartigue Donation President in the catalogue introduction.

Initially in Barcelona’s “La CaixaForum” in 2010.

Then in Palma de Mallorque’s “La CaixaForum” until January 23rd 2011, and in Madrid’s “La CaixaForum” from March 3rd to June 19th 2011.
In “La Lonja” in Saragossa from June 30th to August 31st 2011 and finally  in Lleida from December 13rd 2011 to March 31st 2012.

A detailed catalogue in Catalan and Spanish is available at the exhibit.
“Un mundo flotante, fotografias de Jacques Henri Lartigue”
Written by Florian Rodari, Martine d’Astier, Andres Hispano
Published by “La Caixa”, 297×240, 255 pages

Find the catalog (Spanish)

Find the catalog (Catalan)

Click here to view the embedded video.

CaixaForum Lleida

Av. Blondel, 3
25002 Lleida
Tel. 973 27 07 88
Fax. 973 27 48 89
CaixaForum Lleida Wesite

In 1897, Lartigue comes upon the sea for the first time.

“ Ambleteuse. The sea ! I still had my shoes on from the train ride, so I couldn’t go in the water,  but I ran as fast as I could down to the beach. Mom talks about “the good air » ; but it’s much more than air, air doesn’t make you laugh and put you in a daze and make you see so far away… I kept running, I wasn’t told not to yet… I quickly looked into a puddle, maybe I’d catch the glimpse of a shrimp !?!? I can’t wait for tomorrow morning ! Daylight and going barefoot ! The scent of seaweed…it will all be mine !

I won’t go back to Paris, I’ll stay here forever and ever. I’ll never again have to buy a shell to listen to the sea in Paris ». (« Mémoires sans Mémoire », published by Robert Laffont, Paris 1975)

At the beginning of the 20th century, going to the seaside for the holidays became a privilege for the upper class.  These city visitors however, maintained their well-mannered ways and stylish urban dress codes. Women took strolls on Etretat’s waterfront boardwalk or lounged about on Villerville’s beaches, fully clothed, in straw hats and protected from the sun by umbrellas. They sat up straight on chairs instead of sitting on the sand as if to not quite succumb to the appeal of the « wild ».

New pastimes emerged after the Great War, such as swimming, canoeing, playing ball, physical culture, shrimp netting… The elegant Parisian style was nevertheless customary, as seen for example in Biarritz or Deauville : hats, umbrellas and gloves were still very much in fashion. However, attitudes changed, swimsuits made their appearance and there was a more relaxed attitude about one’s body, sunbathing and the wholesomeness of sea air. This new way of life thrilled Lartigue and well suited his free spirit and his love of movement. These are the years in which he photographs his friend Sala frolicking in the waves in Biarritz and Maurice Chevalier walking on his hands in Royan.

He stays true to the Riviera even though he prefers the off-season months. This is where he takes photographs of the women in his life, such as Bibi, in Antibes’ « Hotel du Cap » tearoom by the pool which was later named « Eden Roc » (autochrome 1920), or Renée, leaning on a banister beneath large parasols (Eden Roch 1930).

In 1932 he works as an assistant for film director Alexis Granowsky, on the set for the movie « The Adventures of King Pausole ». He’s in charge of casting one hundred and sixty queens for the film and takes amusing snapshots of the bathing beauties during the shoot.

Jacques Henri Lartigue’s photographs are not mere fashionable souvenirs of high society’s posh gatherings of the time. He loves roaming the shore alone at dawn, and photographs such as his November 1924 self-portrait in Merlimont’s dunes, or the early morning lone swimmer in Hyères, in 1929, reveal his meditative moods. Yet another photograph in which his friend Sala is seen from behind looking out at the ocean at Biarritz’ “Rocher de la Vierge” in 1927, shows how he photographs similar moods he sees in others.

Stormy weather isn’t a deterrent either. He wouldn’t miss a full-fledged storm for anything in the world : Dieppe in December 1928 or in the Negresco Beach in Nice in March 1934.

Lartigue’s photographs are holiday souvenirs but even more so, those of a lifetime, in which he constantly yearned to capture each unique moment.

The “Rivages” photo exhibit was put together by the JH Lartigue Donation and was shown for the first time in 1990 at the “Grand Palais” in Paris. The exhibit has since then traveled extensively. The exhibit will open in the Havre’s André Graillot Hall in January 2012.