While working on Jacques Henri Lartigue, few of the words that popped up in most articles or book I read about him were, ‘spontaneous’, ‘captured life itself’, ‘joyful’, ‘nostalgia’, ‘free spirit and love of life’, ‘captured a sense of movement’, etc.
He was born in Paris, June 13, 1894, in a prosperous family. Lartigue got a camera at the age of 8, and he started capturing photos since then. Most of his well-known work are the photographs he took in his childhood. He made the most of his privileged life, capturing moments, a lot of them of his family and friends. His photos also portrayed motion – mid-action shots which could easily be manipulated now with shutter speed but during those days must have been more difficult which probably means he had developed a good intuition as to when to have his camera ready.
His childhood photos consist mostly of him and his cousin trying to fly planes, build cars, car races, and families and animals. Later in his life, his three wives became his muse, and he uses some amazing shadow play to capture their photos. Also, he would go to events – horse racing and capture the women in their beautiful attires.
He was an amateur photographer who became known when he visited New York City and caught the eye of MOMA curator, John Szarkowski, who gave him a solo exhibition in the year 1963 when he was 69 years old.
He even did color photography and once he became a known artist, he got the opportunity to shoot for magazines and even the then French President, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing.
I really enjoyed going through his photographs, these photos have joy, happiness captured in them and one can’t help but smile. Also to be able to capture a moment as it truly was and people not showing discomfort I think is one amazing strength. It was something I loved about his work – people never seemed conscious or uncomfortable. He was a good photographer – in the sense he was able to make himself invisible to the subjects. Even his later photographs where he took portraits they are so beautiful, capturing the beauty in the women he shot.
Sources:
http://www.howardgreenberg.com/artists/jacques-henri-lartigue
http://moma.org/d/c/exhibition_catalogues/W1siZiIsIjMwMDE0NzA2NiJdLFsicCIsImVuY292ZXIiLCJ3d3cubW9tYS5vcmcvY2FsZW5kYXIvZXhoaWJpdGlvbnMvMjU2MyIsImh0dHA6Ly9tb21hLm9yZy9jYWxlbmRhci9leGhpYml0aW9ucy8yNTYzP2xvY2FsZT1lcyJdXQ.pdf?sha=525a1a01790fcd05
https://www.atgetphotography.com/The-Photographers/Jacques-Henri-Lartigue.html
https://www.jacksonfineart.com/artists/jacques-henri-lartigue/
http://jumblepusher.com/post/146574561113/jacques-henri-lartigue-vera-villepion-arlette