"JACQUES HENRI LARTIGUE – A SPORTING LIFE". Collectif. Editions Actes Sud, Arles en collaboration avec Hermès. 2013. Imprimé en Italie. in-4 carré, couverture toilée marron foncé avec photo sur le 1er plat. Pages de garde illustrées. 250 pages. Textes en anglais de Thierry Terret, préface d'Anne-Marie Garat, traduction anglaise par Charles Penwarders, illustré de 160 reproductions photographiques noir & blanc, hors texte, dont 11 en double page, par Jacques Henri Lartigue.

 

"A book of sport-inspired photos by Jacques Lartigue, the most loveable observer of his times, so belatedly recognised as one of the twentieth century's major photographers. His work continues to astonish: the photographs, paintings (he considered himself first and foremost a painter), notebooks, drawings and writings of a prolific but secretive artist who worked with no thought of profit or fame, with the freedom of an eternal child delighting in the spectacle of life and its pleasures, surprises and novelties. This collection is a real gift. It illustrates every facet of sport, one of his favourite themes, and tells us so much about the history of man, society and photography. It was not until the 1960s that an exhibition in New York brought to public attention the extraordinary individuality of this photographic corpus previously known only to family and friends. The countless pictures he had taken since his childhood and kept with him, carefully classified, dated, annotated and captioned with commentaries, like the album of his own life, games and youthful activities, also covered the privileged milieu he inhabited. Together they constitute a striking autobiographical œuvre, an archive of his life and times. And it was not the least of Lartigue's good fortune that the public, focusing on his past work, let him go on as before, with the freedom of the early days, protected in a way by the tardiness of his success…"

 

Ref LPB1192