Lartigue / Kertész: Masters of Modern Photography

"The greatest amateur photographer" meets "the inventor of photojournalism" in this survey of two documentarians, each with a sympathetic personal eye

Born in the same year and dying within a year of one another, Jacques Henri Lartigue (1894-1986) and André Kertész (1894-1985) led contrasting lives that produced different yet equally remarkable photographic portfolios. Their work was shown at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1963 and 1964, respectively, but while Lartigue was dubbed an "amateur," Kertész was hailed as "the inventor of photojournalism." Both oeuvres are characterized by a unique, highly personal aesthetic--Lartigue candid, Kertész reflective--that set them apart from other modalities of image-making, and served as inspiration for later generations when they both reached acclaim in the 1970s. Lartigue / Kertész pays tribute to these two paragons by comparing their parallel careers through a selection of 185 photographs, in color and black and white, highlighting the similarities and singularities of their approaches to the art of photography.