Jacques-Henri Lartigue (1894-1986)
Born to a wealthy family in Courbevoie, France, Jacques-Henri Lartigue received his first camera at the age of seven from his father who was an amateur photographer. Many of Lartigue’s early works documented his family and friends’ privilege lifestyle, which included many activities of amusement: the racetracks, the beach, cars, elegant costumes, sporting events, and all manners of the upper echelon. For the majority of his life Lartigue identified as a painter and concentrated on painting as his source of income. He continued his photographic work along with journals to document his life. It wasn’t until the age of 69 when his childhood photographs caught the eye of Charles Rado, which led to an exhibition of his work at the Museum of Modern Art. It was this exhibit that skyrocketed him to fame and exposure in the industry.
Since his childhood, Lartigue’s photographic subjects had mainly been spontaneous glimpses of everyday life. His works shows his fascination with movement and his candid approach to photography. The majority of his works are in black-and-white and captures movement at a stand still. A quick search of his work will display racecars in mid-race with dirt and dust in its tracks and people in midair and mid-dance. Lartigue incorporates the natural elements of earth, water, and wind to compliment the movement of his subjects.
Lartigue’s works are energetic and playful, and willfully shows the joy and freedom of life. His works concerns more about capturing the free spirit of everyday than with professional mannerism and techniques. In many ways his works make me feel excited and adventurous about life. There’s a spontaneity in the way he captures the world that makes me excited to be young and drives me to run out and live. His works inspires me to take more photos and worry less about technicality and more about just capturing the moment at its prime. It seems Lartigue has a great eye for capturing fleeting movements at its most climatic second. It appears he’s able to capture people jumping at their highest point or a diver seconds before he touches the water. His photographs motivate me to have my camera on hand at all times because as with his style of photography moments are random and spontaneous.
Whereas, his photographs of everyday life and movement appear candid and unplanned, his portraits are more structured and thought out. In one photo, Lartigue has his model emerged in a tub of water except for her face and hands. Most of his portraits appeared posed and directed, which gives these works a certain intimacy that his other works lack. His everyday snapshots are more playful and fun but his portraits are much more mature. Perhaps, it has to do with Lartigue’s personal maturation since most of his snapshots were taken as a child while his portraits was taken in the later half of his life after he reached recognition in the industry.
There appears to be a greater concern with beauty and style in his portraits, which comes from the fact that his works are in black-and-white, which makes them more mysterious and the lack of expression in his models. The models in his works are expressionless and quite stoic, but I sense a strong connection between Lartigue and his subjects. The models seems to be aware of what Lartigue is looking for, which adds to the intimacy of the work. Lartigue treats the subjects of his portraits more of an art piece, focusing more on beauty and aesthetics than with spontaneity. I get a more artistic vibe from this because whether the subject is looking at the camera or away, it looks directed and planned out rather than in the moment.
-Jackson Liang