Lartigues

Jacques Henri Lartigue was born in 1894, and by the age of six was taking his first photos. Coming from a well-off family, he witnessed the glamour of the first part of the twentieth century, and captured what he saw on camera. It was a fascinating time, with the birth of many innovations that would change the world, automobiles and airplanes being but two. During his life he would witness two world wars, and the glamour of the first half of the century being slowly lost to the modern-day uniforms of  T-shirts and dirty training shoes that had become an almost universal uniform when he died at the age of ninety two.

Lartigue’s photos were like a diary. Everything of interest in his life was seen through the lens, and then developed and printed by himself. He never had any professional training, and did not seem to be interested in being recognized. During his life he took thousands and thousands of photos of anything that interested him. His legacy is a photographic history spanning nearly a century.

It was not until the mid-sixties that his talents were discovered. And strangely it was the Americans, not his native French who brought him to recognition. At the age of seventy he started working professionally for glamorous magazines like Harper’s Bazaar, and Vogue.

Lartigue never set out to photograph automobiles, and they are only a small part of his work. I hope you will enjoy these.