| French photographer Jacques-Henri Lartigue built his reputation in the 1920's with his photos of Parisian cabaret performers. It was during this period that cigarette smoking by women started to become popular. Lartigue was intrigued by the sight of a woman holding a cigarette and proceeded to take a series of photos to document this phenomenon. He held on to these photos for over 50 years, until the book "Les Femmes Aux Cigarettes" was published in 1979. In his introduction he tries to make light of this collection, claiming that he found it amusing.
But at the end of the preface he states "Perhaps I took these photographs because I knew subconsciously that the shutter of my eye would not impress these memories on the sensitized plate of my mind so clearly". The intensity of that statement coupled with the fact that he held on to them for over half a century suggest that his interest in smoking women may have been more than a form of amusement. Here are some examples of the photos included in the book.
Click photos to view a larger version. |
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