Lartigue

(lartigue's brother zizi with his race car).

When i was in london i went to see an exhibition of jacques henri lartigue's work. it blew my mind.
i love photography, and i just loved the concept behind lartigue's work.
basically, lartigue was an ill little boy, born to wealthy french parents at the end of the 19th century. he was given a camera as a young boy and devoted himself to taking photos of everything and everyone about him. his goal was to record happiness.
he kept every photo and collated them in heaps and heaps of albums which he then donated to a french museum in the 70s.
his photos are amazing: he takes candid photos of everything, but they're quite professional and of a high standard. and he started doing this in the 1910s. so there's a century of photography in his albums (there's some post-70s stuff as well) available. it's truly facinating and wonderful. esp in his earlier years, when he was obsessed with motion. it you ever get a chance to see his stuff, you must go. it's so wonderful.

lartique as a child with his camera

the sort of image that characterised much of lartigue's work:

he would photograph his family members doing everything, but especially moving - acrobatics, swimming, running and so on. lartigue's sister.

the sort of lartigue photo which gets used a lot:

i like this stuff - lartigue's brother in a race car, or flying home-made flying machines - but i actually prefer the photos of people.

one of lartigue's later wives:

lartigue liked the ladies. my favourite period for lartigue's work is... well, i was going to say the 20s and 30s, but the later stuff is just as wonderful.

i just love his photos. he takes pictures of people he knows, people who are important to him. and he happened to know som famous people, which is kind of nice as well.

lartigue is just wonderful: i love his obsessive recording of every photo, his experimentation with new photographic technology, his obesession with recording moments of happiness and love. his work just really moves me.

Posted by Dogpossum on November 10, 2004 11:35 AM