Jean-Pierre Laffont “Turbulent America”

Sous Les Etoiles Gallery

[Image: © Jean-Pierre Laffont "Powder Ridge Rock Festival" (1970)]

This event has ended.

Sous Les Etoiles Gallery presents “Turbulent America,“ French-American photographer Jean-Pierre Laffont’s premiere exhibition with the gallery.

This is the first exhibition of “Turbulent America,” which represents a selection of Jean-Pierre Laffont’s work from the 1960s, ‘70s, and ‘80s that capture the genuine sense of what it was like to live in America during these decades. As a photographer for the Gamma Agency, Sygma Photo News, as well as a White House Correspondent, Laffont traveled across the country to portray the America that he saw with an insatiable curiosity. Laffont’s work embodied the popular slogan of the time; “the personal is political.” His photographs provide viewers with an unaltered look into American life, from protests for and against the Vietnam War, Civil Rights movements marching on Washington, Nixon’s departure from the White House, the Flower Power movement, the first gay pride parades, or even New York gangs. While “Turbulent America” represents an America in flux, it also gets to the heart of what it means to be American; highlighting the complexity and diversity that was so integral to American counterculture at that time.

“Turbulent America” portrays a country that is torn by civil war, racial inequality, and violence, but one that is also filled with hope, optimism and growth. Speaking about these images Laffont comments, “They do what photographs do best: freeze decisive moments in time for future examination. These photographs form a personal and historical portrait of a country I have always viewed critically but affectionately, and to which I bear immense gratitude.”

Born in 1935, Jean-Pierre Laffont studied photography at Arts et Métiers in Vevey, Switzerland before immigrating to the United States in 1965 where he began his career as a photojournalist. In 1973, alongside his wife Eliane, he co-founded Sygma Photo News, which rose to the top of the list of press agencies. During the next three decades, Jean-Pierre Laffont carried out numerous political and social reportages throughout the United States as well as the internationally.

The two most recent books by Jean-Pierre Laffont are New York Up and Down, released in August 2017, and Turbulent America 1960-1990, released in 2014 both published by Glitterati.