Edouard Boubat: The Monograph

by Edouard Boubat

In a career that spanned more than fifty years, photographer Edouard Boubat (1923-1999) captured the magic of fleeting moments with tenderness and warmth. A contemporary of Brassai and Robert Doisneau, and one of the most influential French photographers of the twentieth century, Boubat made elegant, poetic images - beginning with intimate views of everyday life in his native city of Paris and moving on to striking pictures taken during his travels in Africa, India, Spain, Portugal, Mexico, and Japan, when he was working as a staff photojournalist for the well-known French magazine Realites. Boubat's photographs were the subject of a major exhibition at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, in 1976, the same year he published the first major book on his oeuvre.
Now, five years after the photographer's death, this luxurious volume presents the entire range of Boubat's work in more than three hundred tritone photographs. All his most famous images are here - including those of his muse, Lella - along with texts by writers Marguerite Duras, Michel Tournier, and Jacques Prevert, as well as Boubat's own writings and notebook excerpts. Developed in close collaboration with Boubat's son, Bernard, and photographer/filmmaker Genevieve Anhoury, this authoritative volume is the only existing monograph on the enduringly popular photographer.

368 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2004

Reviews

[طاهر الزهراني · Rating 5 out of 5]

الأمر الذي يتكرر دائمًا ولا يزال يدهشنا؛ هو حضور بعض الكتب في الوقت المناسب، تلك العلاقة اللطيفة بين الظرف والسطر الذي يربت على كتفك، رغم الحزن،والألم والفقد، ورغم النية في هجران الكتابة من أجل "معاقبة الحياة لأنها عاقبتنا".
هذه الرواية هي طوق نجاة من أجل أن تكون "على قيد الحياة"

[Amna · Rating 5 out of 5]

من الرواية:

- سحَقَ الموتُ كُل شيء داخلي

- في الثاني عشر من شهر أغسطس سنة 1995، في بلدة كروز، أمسك الموتُ بك من شَعرٍك. خلت يومها أنّك تعانين أوجاع صداع نصفي. تهيأ لك أنك قلت شيئا بلا معنى ثم سقطتِ، بينما تتهاطل أمطارٌ من نجوم حمراء في كل مكان داخل دماغك. قال الأطباء أنك أُصبْتِ بتمزق الأوعية الدموية.

- طوال ستة عشر عاما، رافقتك في كل مكان، بيد أني وجدتُ الأمر مستحيلا في الثاني عشر من أغسطس سنة 1995. لم أفهم لماذا استحال عليٍ أن أرافقك يومها

ماتت "غيزلان"، إلّا أنها لم تمت بالنسبة له. خطابات مُفعمة بالحب والدفء والحزن والاستسلام..

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely magnificent. I read the library's copy but I'm going to be buying it for myself. I was not familiar with Boubat and came across one of his photos and really liked it. I read this book to learn more about him and his work. I didn't come across one image that I didn't like. Depictions of everyday life taken with a warmth that shows through. He believed that there was enough bad and heartbreaking in the world so he set out to show the good. He succeeded admirably.