DESCRIPTION (longer copy)Jacques-Henri Lartigue took his first photograph using his father's camera when he was six years old, and with this began the creation of an enduring record of twentieth-century French life. His charming work captures the intimacies of family life, society and sporting events, aviation and motoring in its infancy, and street life, all with beauty and panache. A devoted amateur, Lartigue arranged the several thousands of photographs he took into large albums, which served as a visual diary, as well as one of major achievements of modern photography. Although his photographs were occasionally exhibited with fellow photographers Brassal, Robert Doisneau, and Henri Cartier-Bresson, his reputation as an important figure of the modern era was secured with his exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, shortly before his 70th birthday. Almost ten years later, he donated his entire collection of albums, prints, and negatives to the French State. This gift included 130 albums starting in 1880 (with his family's album) and ending with his death in 1986; all black-and-white and color prints and negatives; and Lartigue's handwritten diary. This book represents the most comprehensive overview of Latrigue's work, including pages from the original albums that he created. Quentin Bajac is a curator in the Photography Department at the Musee d'Orsay in Paris. Clement Cheroux is a historian of photography. He is assistant editor-in-chief of the magazine, Photographic Studies and scientific advisor to the Musee Nicephore Niepce. He has published books on August Strindberg, photographs of the Nazi concentration and extermination camps, and he oversaw the creation of acollection of monographs of contemporary photographers. Maryse Cordess is the President of the Association of the Friends of Jacques Henri Lartigue. Martine d'Astier de la Vigerie is the Director of the Jacques Henri Lartigue Gift.

Most comprehensive book ever published on this acclaimed photographer and accompanies major internationally traveling exhibition; an enduring record of 20th- century French life through photographs and includes 6 essays highlighting the various aspects of Lartique's art.

Jacques Henri Lartigue (1894-1986) took his first photograph using his father's camera when he was six years old, and thus precociously began to create what would become an enduring record of 20th-century French life. Lartigue's charming images depict the intimacies of family, the style and panache of the Belle Epoque and the Parisian haut monde, the novelty of aviation and motoring in their infancy, and the vagaries of street life. Arranged into large albums, his several thousand photographs form a visual diary, as well as one of the major achievements of modern photography. As Lartigue approached his 80th birthday, he donated his entire collection of albums, prints, and negatives to the French State. This beautiful book, the most comprehensive ever published on the artist, reproduces facsimile pages from the albums-- ranging from the earliest family heirlooms to the last photographs he created before his death--and includes six essays about various aspects of his art. Produced to accompany a major retrospective of Lartigue's work that will open at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and later travel to the United States, the book brings new attention to one of the great masters of photography.

Alain Sayag is a curator in the photography department at the Centre Pompidou. He has written books on Man Ray and Brassaï. Quentin Bajac is a curator in the photography department at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. Martine d'Astier is the director of the Donation Jacques Henri Lartigue. Clément Chéroux is a historian of photography, assistant editor-in-chief of the magazine Photographic Studies, and scientific advisor to the Musée Nicéphore Niépce. Maryse Cordesse is the president of the Association of the Friends of Jacques Henri Lartigue. Kevin Moore earned his Ph.D. at Princeton University, where he wrote his doctoral thesis on Lartigue. He now works as a research associate at the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University.