Jacques-Henri Lartigue (1894-1986) created an impressive body of photographs throughout his lifetime; however he, he took many of his most famous pictures during his childhood. Forty of these extraordinary photographs and stereographs are the focus of this exhibition. Since Lartigue's "discovery" in 1964 and his first major exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, this is the first time that such a large group of Lartigue's childhood photographs has been the focus of an exhibition in the United States.

Together, these photographs offer an exuberant portrait of a remarkable child artist. Lartigue's talents developed quickly after he received his first camera for his seventh birthday. After this, it seems, he was rarely without a camera, and he immediately began experimenting with this exciting new medium. Lartigue used his camera to document the idyllic moments of family and friends at leisure and play. But he was also fascinated by the activities of inventors, scientists and dare-devils of every kind, who were busily creating the thrilling technologies (especially the airplane and automobile) that would revolutionize life in the twentieth century.

 

Jacques-Henri Lartigue Rouzat, Dé Dé, Lartigue's cousin, diving with water wing 1911, gelatin silver print 12 X 19 inches, on loan from the Association of Friends of Jacques-Henri Lartigue of the French Ministry of Culture	Jacques-Henri Lartigue Rouzat, riding the "Bobsleigh Course" 1910, gelatin silver print 12 X 16 inches, on loan from the Association of Friends of Jacques-Henri Lartigue of the French Ministry of Culture

Through his photographs, Lartigue was a youthful witness to these events. In a larger sense, Lartigue provided a vivid, candid portrait of life during the pre-war Belle Époque in France - on its boulevards and country lanes, joyfully at play, parading its latest fashions, and fearlessly launching itself into the skies.

The exhibition is accompanied by a brochure with an essay by Dr. John Cech who gears the text to youth in their early teens. John Cech, Guest Curator and Professor of English at UF and Director of the Center for Children's Literature and Culture, and author of Jacques-Henri Lartigue: Boy with a Camera, worked along with co-curator, Kerry Oliver-Smith, to produce the exhibition

Jacques-Henri Lartigue: A Boy, A Camera, An Era is organized by the Harn Museum with works made available through a generous loan of The Association of Friends of Jacques-Henri Lartigue of the French Ministry of Culture. The exhibition is sponsored by the France/Florida Research Institute of the University of Florida, the Consulate General of France, Barr Systems, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Center for Children's Literature and Culture at the University of Florida.

Kerry Oliver-Smith
Curator of Contemporary Art