For several years now, the Salon de la Photo has sought to illustrate the fascinating world of film photography through the work of great photographers. With Sabine Weiss, Raymond Cauchetier, Elliott Erwitt and Gianni Berengo Gardin the public has thus revisited certain photographic masterpieces of the XNUMXth century.

This year another photographer of the same generation as Sabine Weiss, Jean Marquis, celebrates his 90th birthday. He worked from his beginnings at the Magnum agency. Born in 1926 in Armentières in the North, he crisscrossed France in the 1950s and 1960s. First following the path of humanist photography, he subsequently took new directions and, in a period of great social change , turned to a more contemplative photography by bringing a new vision on industrial photography and the world of work.

Jean Marquis owes his beginnings in photography to a key figure on the international photography scene of the 1950s: Robert Capa, cousin of his young wife Susie. The latter advises him to improve first in a laboratory. He then entered Pictorial Service at Pierre Gassman's where he learned everything about darkroom printing. He also has the opportunity to view the contact sheets of great photographers, such as Cartier-Bresson and George Rodger, which allows him to understand their way of treating their subjects. His report on the Deûle, produced while riding a bicycle along the northern canals, seduced Capa, who then signed his entry into the great and prestigious Magnum family.

Armed with a Leica bought from Henri Cartier-Bresson, he began his career as a photo reporter without ever leaving aside his research for personal subjects. He later worked for Time Life and the New York Times. Passionate about night lights, Jean Marquis shows his mastery of grain and long exposure times very early on. During two nights in Liverpool in 1955, on his way to the Isle of Man, he produced several images of astonishing power: port scenes in the half-light of the quays. From his many trips to Corrèze, he subsequently brought back scenes from a rural life that has now disappeared. A countryside where bread is made, clogs are still cut and where people still work in the fields as in the XNUMXth century. The almost cinematographic eye of Marquis caresses these landscapes with the eloquence of an exceptional framing, learned from his masters Capa and Cartier-Bresson.

Jean Marquis photographed Paris a lot. He loved to walk day and night in what he calls the street theater. Fashion, politicians, major events, the old Halls, prominent writers and artists, horse races, cinema, everything passed before his lens, through his tender gaze and a passion for natural light. Very influenced by literature and the theater, Jean Marquis is at ease when he recreates in photography the places where Louis Aragon wandered in Paris with Elsa Triolet, in his book "Il ne m'st Paris que d'Elsa" which 'they published together in 1964 at Laffont.

Whatever the subject he discusses, Jean Marquis lets his emotion and empathy shine with simplicity and restraint.

The Photo Fair
of the 10 14 2016 November
Porte de Versailles

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