For a while I was very close to some of the places Jacques Henry Lartigue chose to be happy. Living in Paris, he nevertheless spent some of his summers at the southwest of France. And it was there in where many of his very known photographs were taken.
I was his fan for a long time. A man with fortune and beautiful women who finally became a very important photographer. Who wouldn’t envy him.
As said, I had the opportunity of breathing the atmosphere of his favourite places at the Côte Basque, in France. Also, some exhibitions were occasionally shown in some of the small towns around there.
Lartigue liked fun, cars, planes and women. Besides art. As simple as that. And he was good with the camera that he used since he was a kid. A French aristocrat with good taste and money. And a lot of time to take photographs. Exceptional photographs.
I lived close to those places for years. My admiration for him increased, as I could know more about his work spending time very often at the same places he did.
This house was still there in Hendaye. One day I decided to make a selfie in the same house he was in one of his photographs,
in the same place his wife Bibi photographed him together with his Amilcar in July 1927
Lartigue was also a painter. But not a successful one. Even having met important figures like Picasso, his life as a photographer didn’t find recognition for very long, till his work was shown at MOMA when he was in his sixties.
Here his wife Renée, photographed in 1930 in Sokoa wharf
right in here
Some have tried to put in doubt the mastery of his work as lacking any originality and true art value. In a book by Kevin Moore the argument is thoroughly developed.
This one is called “The indifference” made in August 1927, Hendaye, Bidasoa border, Fontarabie
not far from here
He got a camera as a present when he was very young. Since then he started documenting his life and fulfilling lots of notebooks with his photographs.
In that beach he made some of his famous photographs
Hendaye beach, with those big twin rocks Les Deux Jumeaux in August 1927.
Just in here
One from a very known series of umbrellas in that beach. Bibi shadow and reflection, August 1927
… about close to here
Lartigue lived the development of cars and planes and many of his works explored his passion for speed and the new technology of his times.
Place Belleuve, July 1927, Biarritz. Nana Bibi, Dani
Looking to here
His work has finally become a very important reference for photographers. His freshness, his uninhibited style, his determination and his eye opened a new chapter in photography world.
Here he was photographed in Saint Jean de Luz in August 1927
just at this beach
But for me, despite any other qualities, Lartigue made people fly.
Photographs like this taken in Hendaye in August 1927 are common in his work, … just wonderful
On the same sands I got this one close to one century later with one of my experimental cameras.
I called it l’imparable
Bibliography
BOY WITH A CAMERA
The story of Jacques Henry Lartigue by John Cech
MADAME FRANCE Jacques Henry Lartigue
Photology
LARTIGUE ou le plaisir de la photographie
Musée des Beux-Arts et d’Archeologie e Besancon
Jaques Henry LARTIGUE. L’album d’una vie- A life’s diary
Centre Pompidou
JACQUES HENRY LARTIGUE AU PAYS BASQUE
atlantica
L’artigue, la vie en couleurs
Martine d’Astier Martine Ravache SEUIL
LARTIGUE AU PAYS DE LA CÔTE BASQUE Les traverses d’un corps-image
Pascal de Lavergne SEGUIER
JACQUES HENRY LARTIGUE The invention of an artist
Kevin Moore Princeton University Press
Great images, George.
I suspect Lartigue's critics dismiss his work because Lartigue refused to take himself too seriously, which shows up his critics for the pretentious clowns they are.