Jacques Henri Lartigue: The Invention of Happiness

Despite becoming interested in photography when he was barely in double digits, French artist Jacques Henri Lartigue didn’t achieve mainstream recognition until he was nearly 70 years old. A 1963 exhibition of his boyhood photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York prompted new appreciation for his unposed, humanist productions. This book presents 120 images from Lartigue’s numerous personal photo albums, including 55 pictures that have never been published before. They bore a clear affinity with the street photography of the great humanist photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson.Though he mainly supported himself as a painter later on in life, Lartigue was devoted to the art of photography and continued to capture the world around him until he was in his 90s, beginning with domestic candid shots in his childhood and later depicting the upper crust of European society.With their motion-blur and frequently grinning, unposed subjects, Lartigue’s images convey the photographer’s genuine passion for life and a consistent interest in everyday moments.
ISBN 9788829705276. Marsilio. hb. 208 pages. 150 duotone ills. 21.6 x 27.9 cm.
available