A BOY WHO PHOTOGRAPHED LA BELLE ÉPOQUE OF FRANCE

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Jacques Henri Lartigue, born in 1894 in Courbevoie, was given a camera as a boy by his father at the dawn of the 20th Century.

He began taking photographs of his life, including snapshots of his parents; his bedroom; his nanny Dudu throwing a ball up into the air; his brother jumping off a boat.

A new book by Louise Baring explores Lartigue's privileged childhood and early career against the backdrop of France's La 

Belle Époque, an era of political, commercial and creative optimism.

Lartigue went on to photograph his brother Zissou's inventions, including a glider lifting off in a gust of wind, and his cousins racing around in home-made go-karts.

He photographed the social parade in the Bois de Boulogne, a large park on the outskirts of Paris, where the fashions of the upper echelons of society were displayed.

Lartigue: The Boy and the Belle Époque is published by Thames & Hudson.

Photographs courtesy Jacques Henri Lartigue / 2020 Ministère de la Culture - France/AAJ HL

https://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-52373308