Alfred Latour (1888 – 1964)

Photographs- Framing his time

29th march– 30th september 2018

Exceptional extension until December 30, 2018

Alfred Latour was a French painter and engraver, who also worked as a draughtsman, designer, illustrator and photographer. He was a modern artist who was keen to portray the world in his own individual style when he left the École des Arts Décoratifs de Paris at the start of 1910, to describe through pictures with a new vocabulary.
He was interested in photography, on the one hand because it serves as a brilliant notebook for a painter, on the other because between the two wars it provided him with a livelihood. At the end of the 1920s, he was hired by the photo agency Meurisse as an independent reporter.
Following his brief membership of the UAM (Union of Modern Artists founded by the architect Robert Mallet Stevens), his proximity to artists like Sonia Delaunay and René Herbst helped build a taste for formal simplification. Architecture broke new ground in design and materials, photography evolved through cameras reducing in size that enabled, at that time, a new method of positioning oneself in front of the subject. A witness to his own time, he took pictures of the Parisian life in Les Halles, the bird market, metro stations and relaxation on the beaches of Normandy.
Latour sometimes chose more abstract themes and constructed photographs in multiple planes, toying with window reflections and games with mirrors. He often created series and his best close-ups are clearly through the discreet way in which he approached the characters he portrayed. The human condition occupies most of his pictures and his watchful eye is not immune to irony and humour. What comes to mind when perusing Latour’s photographs is his rigorous framing. The construction is thought through in the eyes of an engraver and architect, the subject is often accentuated by a structuring element in the image itself: the street is seen through the windscreen of a car or an avenue is emphasised by two steps.
Alfred Latour made use of photography for commissioned reports or to capture the landscapes that he wished to paint or draw. His seascapes are an invitation to dream. He never exhibited his photography however. It was carefully stored in boxes and only discovered in 2016. What is certain is that he assembled extensive and invaluable photo archives. Even his last pictures, taken in his village Eygalières, are a captivating sociological testimony. Sensitivity always prevails over extraordinary.

P. Starobinski, Alfred Latour Foundation Director

A book has been co-edited for the exhibition by the Alfred Latour Foundation and the publishers Actes Sud.