Three exhibitions in Brittany and a new book are celebrating the remarkable photographic legacy of renowned Magnum photographer Guy Le Querrec, who documented life in the French region through more than 5,000 photographs taken between 1965 and 1980. The comprehensive tribute showcases Le Querrec's deep connection to his Breton heritage and his masterful documentation of the region's culture and people.
Born in Paris on May 12, 1941, to Breton parents, Le Querrec began his photographic journey at age fourteen when he received an Ultra-Fex 4.56 camera as a Christmas gift from the Workers Council at the bank where his mother worked. His passion for photography grew rapidly as he acquired increasingly sophisticated equipment, purchasing a second-hand Photax the following year, then a Semflex, and eventually receiving a Rolleiflex from his parents in exchange for academic success. In 1962, he bought his first Leica IIIG with earnings from overtime hours at the insurance company where he worked.
Le Querrec turned professional at age twenty-six, starting his career at Atelier 3, a small advertising agency located on Rue Daguerre in Paris. His breakthrough came in 1969 when he joined the weekly magazine Jeune Afrique as a photojournalist and was put in charge of the photo department. For two years, he traveled extensively throughout French-speaking Black Africa and North African countries, developing the expertise that would later define much of his career.
His agency affiliations shaped his professional development significantly. In 1971, he joined the agency Vu from Éditions Rencontre, led by Pierre de Fenoÿl, and the following year co-founded the agency Viva, which he left in 1975. During this period, he produced some of his most representative work, including his extensive Brittany documentation, contributions to Viva's collective report "Family in France" (1973), coverage of Portugal during the Carnation Revolution (1974-1975), and "The French on Vacation" (1976), which earned him his first grant from the Foundation Nationale de la Photographie.
Le Querrec joined Magnum Photos in 1976 and was elected as a fellow in 1977, marking the beginning of a distinguished career with one of photography's most prestigious agencies. His major stories during this period included the Concert Mayol in Paris (1979, supported by a grant from the city of Paris), extensive documentation of African countries between 1984 and 1998 featuring a notable report on the traditions of Lobi Country in Burkina Faso as part of Magnum's 50th anniversary, comprehensive coverage of China (1984-1988, 1989), and documentation of the United States in 1990, including the Big Foot Memorial Ride in South Dakota.
A unique aspect of Le Querrec's career was his close collaboration with sculptor Daniel Druet from 1977 to 1989, which brought him to the Élysée Palace to photograph President François Mitterrand's break sessions. One of these photographs was selected in 1999 for the prestigious series "The Photos of the Century: 100 Historic Moments," published both as a television program and book. In 1998, he was honored with Paris's Grand Prix, recognizing his outstanding contribution to photography.
Music, particularly jazz, has held a central place in Le Querrec's work since the 1960s. His photographs have created a dense, regular chronicle of the world of musicians, capturing their styles, rhythms, relationships, and environments on stage, in concert, during rehearsals, behind the scenes, while traveling, and in moments of creation and daily life. His first photograph of renowned musician Michel Portal was taken in 1964, and in 1981, in connection with a Ministry of Culture project called Photoscopie, he followed Portal for three months. He continued to document Portal's musical life regularly, notably creating booklets for the CDs "Minneapolis" (2001) and "Minneapolis We Insist" (2002) published by Universal Jazz.
During the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie d'Arles, Le Querrec created innovative multimedia performances at the Théâtre Antique. He produced "De l'eau dans le jazz" (Water in Jazz) in 1983 and "Jazz comme une Image" (Jazz as an Image) in 1993. These groundbreaking pieces featured photographs projected on a giant screen, designed as visual scores for live, improvised music performed by a quartet featuring Michel Portal, Louis Sclavis, Henri Texier, and Jean-Pierre Drouet. In 1998, he created an evolutionary poster campaign in Parisian metro stations over five weeks, also titled "Jazz comme une Image," promoting the Banlieues Blues festival.
From 1980, Le Querrec participated in approximately thirty documentary films about jazz, primarily directed by Frank Cassenti, including musician profiles and festival reports. His African work expanded through tours across twenty-five countries with musicians Aldo Romano, Louis Sclavis, and Henri Texier, a trio he created through his own initiative. These journeys resulted in box sets combining CDs and photographic booklets published by Label Bleu: "Carnet de Routes" (Central and Western Africa) in 1995, "Suite Africaine" (Eastern and Southern Africa) in 1999, and in 2005, the third part of the African triptych was released as a double album CD "African Flashback," featuring nearly 200 photographs from other African assignments between 1968 and 1998, set to music by the same trio.
Le Querrec's innovative approach to combining photography and music continued to evolve. In November 2006, for the 20th International DJazz de Nevers Festival, the trio and the Griot created the piece "Root africaine." That same year, Raymond Depardon, serving as Artistic Director of the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie d'Arles 2006, selected Le Querrec as one of his featured artists. Under the title "L'œil de l'éléphant" (Eye of the Elephant), Le Querrec presented three major projects: an important retrospective exhibition of seventy large-format photographs, a new projection piece featuring photographs set to live music by the same quartet from 1983 and 1993, and directing an educational course.
Both "L'œil de l'éléphant" and "Root africaine" toured extensively across France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Hungary, Spain, Italy, and Germany, demonstrating the international appeal of Le Querrec's multimedia approach to photography. In 2008, Daniel Soutif selected a portfolio of his work for the exhibition "A Century of Jazz," co-produced by the MART in Rovereto, the Quai Branly Museum in Paris, and the CCCB in Barcelona.
Beyond his artistic work, Le Querrec has maintained a significant commitment to photography education. Following his first seminar at the Rencontres d'Arles in 1976, he has conducted regular and noteworthy pedagogical activities in France through institutions such as RIP d'Arles, University VIII, and Paris Ateliers, as well as internationally in Switzerland, England, Spain, Italy, Canada, Senegal, and Mongolia.
Raymond Depardon offers high praise for his colleague, stating: "He is a poet and a jester at the same time! I immediately thought of him. Guy is a virtuoso. Without a doubt, he has a Magnumian legacy, the decisive moment, and he also has a strong personality. He's a great shooter. He triggers his camera at the right moment. He worked a lot on that. He gave us all a complex! He's someone very present. He's authentically French. He carries a world with him. Guy is a real Parigot [Parisian]! And he likes words, he likes to smile... I had the chance to have a workshop with him. Guy is a great pedagogical expert! I helped him, but also observed. His knowledge is monumental. He has an incredible talk on how to make photographs. If I had to give someone advice, I would tell him to listen to Guy because he knows how to convey the love of photography, that science. He's a little bit of a psychologist, wizard, counselor. He likes people, the human being. He also likes music. It's such a great pleasure for us."
Depardon continues his tribute by noting their shared connection to Africa: "We also have this point in common, we're both Africans! We had this utopian plan to meet in the middle of Africa, him coming from the west and me from the east. One day, perhaps, we'll do that story. Africa suits him well. He's perhaps the most African of the Magnum photographers. He's the griot, the musician, gesture, grace, talk. He loves Africans, people, women, music, notes, songs. His character is very French, but, at the same time, universal. I won't find very many Guy Le Querrecs in the world!"
The current exhibition "Guy Le Querrec, In Brittany" ran from October 18, 2016, to December 3, 2017, at L'imagerie, located at 19 rue Jean Savidan, 22300 Lannion, France. This retrospective, along with the accompanying exhibitions in Brest and Lorient, provides a comprehensive look at Le Querrec's profound documentation of Brittany, showcasing fifteen years of work that captures the essence of the region and its people through the lens of one of France's most celebrated photographers.
