Jacques Henri Lartigue – Invention of happiness. Photographs

Reopened to the public after the lockdown and extended until January 2021, the Venetian exhibition presents 120 images 55 of which previously unknown, all coming from the photo albums where Lartigue (1894-1986) collected his carefree shots, in which “photography becomes the means to resurrect life, to relive happy moments, again and again”.

The exhibition traces the author’s entire career, from the early 1900s to the 1980s, focusing on different significant moments: the Belle Époque golden age and the life of the elegant Parisian bourgeoisie, the car races, the horseracing competitions, sports and social gatherings; the “wonder” for what surrounded him, the daily moments and family, photographed with an ironic look, with a playful and curious spirit; the success achieved with the exhibition at the MoMA in New York in 1963; the shots for fashion magazines and cinema, where he worked as a stage photographer for many films. The cult of happiness, of the fleeting moment is the fil rouge that characterizes the work of the French photographer: “images that are able to make history and at the same time be the light fragment of a deep feeling”.