Paris, 1903. At the age of 9, Jacques began borrowing his father’s stereoscopic camera, which captured images in 3D. From then on, and for the next 25 years, he captured everything he loved in three dimensions as an amateur, purely for his own enjoyment and that of his loved ones. A unique 3D journey into the youth of photographer Jacques Henri Lartigue, a witness to the Belle Époque, the First World War, the Roaring Twenties, and the invention of aviation and the motor car…
The 3D effect in the film is exactly as it was captured during the shoots between 1903 and 1929 by Jacques Henri Lartigue. This film documents that period. The images were restored over a period of four years, without the use of AI, in keeping with the original footage.
‘Lartigue photographed with a stereo camera. It’s such a delight. Your gaze plunges into the depths of the images. It’s fascinating!’
Wes Anderson
Lartigue took his first photograph in 1902 and his last in 1986, the year of his death. Between those two dates, he took some 120,000 photographs. He produced numerous prints, which he pasted into large albums that he annotated himself. At the time of his death, there were 126 of them. During a stopover in New York in 1962, Jacques showed a selection of his early photographs to Charles Rado, director of the Rapho agency, who was immediately enthusiastic. This belated discovery led to an exhibition at MoMA, followed by an article in Life magazine.
The success of the book *Diary of a Century*, which Richard Avedon dedicated to him in 1970, further boosted his international reputation. In the press, he became known as ‘the photographer of happiness’. In the 1970s, he was commissioned to take fashion photographs (for Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue and others) and set photographs (for Bresson, Truffaut, Fellini and others). In 1974, he took the official portrait of the President of the Republic, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. In 1975, the first retrospective of his work, 8X80, took place at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.
Lartigue’s life, then, bears witness to the incredible phenomenon of a man who struggled to make a living as a painter for 40 years, before becoming a renowned photographer during the last 30 years of his life – largely thanks to the photographs he had taken as an amateur in his youth. In 1979, he became the first photographer to donate his works to the French State whilst still alive. He entrusted the Association des Amis de Jacques Henri Lartigue (known as the Lartigue Donation) with the task of preserving and promoting the collection.
The last exhibition he attended, Le troisième oeil (The Third Eye), in 1986, showcased his work in a new light to the public. He passed away that same year, aged 92.
Jacques-Henri Lartigue: Life in Relief
A film by Denis Gaubert Featuring the voices of Luàna Bajrami, Hervé Pierre and Milo Machado-Graner
Stereoscopic 3D documentary
Running time: 68 minutes – France – 2026
UFO Distribution
[email protected]
In cinemas on 16 September 2026
Information
UFO Distribution
Paris, France
September 16, 2026 to October 31, 2026
