Photographer Guy Le Querrec loves fables. The elephant’s eye according to african lore works as a camera at the last second when the diaphragm opens. Each picture taken at this moment calls for imagination, challenging the eye. For over fifty years, Guy Le Querrec’s Leica has been telling universal imaginary legends. Each legend becomes one of our own picture . The spectator is lifted by Le Querrec’s music and images. Beyond any kind of glasses, there is so much to see through the elephant’s eye.
A playwright using photography to emphasize his discourse not his style, Guy Le Querrec left for Africa and the Maghreb in 1969 for the weekly magazine Jeune Afrique. He later joined the Agence Vu of Rencontre Books in 1971 before co-founding the Viva Agency that he would leave in 1975. The pictures most representative of his work during this time were: Brittany, the Family in France, the Portuguese Revolution, the French on holidays. When in 1976 he joined Magnum Photos, he covered major stories including: the Concert Mayol in Paris (a cabaret now defunct), China, The United States: the Big Foot Memorial Ride.
From 1977 to 1985, he accompanied sculptor Daniel Druet for ten sitting sessions with President François Mitterrand at the Elysée. Music, particularly the jazz clubs he visited as early as the 1960’s, held an important place in his work and trained him well. He saw daily scenes like a music partition, played or activated by natural forces.
L’Oeil de l’éléphant
Guy Le Querrec
Until March 31, 2012
Le Royal Monceau
Raffles Paris
37-41, avenue Hoche
75008 Paris
