1894-1986
Jacques Henri Lartigue (1894 -1986) was a French photographer noted for his sincere, often playful presentation of friends, family and French society at play.
At the age of six, Lartigue began photographing and sketching his neighbours and family in action. This lead him to skillfully move into a period of sports photography which lead to stunning images of early automobile races.
Although rarely seen, many of his early images were taken in stereo. He was an experimental artist at heart-not to mention an avid painter-working with varying film sizes and development processes including some of the earliest autochromes.
His greatest achievement was his set of around 120 huge photograph albums, which compose the finest visual autobiography ever produced. While he sold a few photographs in his youth, mainly to sporting magazines such as La Vie au Grand Air, in middle age he concentrated on his painting, and it was only at the age of 29 that his early photographs were discovered by Charles Rado of Rapho Agency. Rado introduced Lartigue of John Szarkowski, the curator of the MOMA, New York, who then put on an exhibition of his work.