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Maternal family of Gilles Larrain, Indochina 1913
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Mother, aunt and maternal grandparents of Gilles Larrain in Japan, 1914
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Gilles and Monique Larrain with Grandmother Alice
Blanchy
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Gilles Larrain was born in Dalat, Indochina,
in 1938 to a Chilean father, who was a diplomat
and painter, and a French-Vietnamese mother,
who was a pianist and painter. He was educated
at New York University and at the Ecole Nationale
des Beaux-Arts in Paris where he studied architecture
and worked in city planning.
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Marguerite, Joseph Mayer, Charlotte and Alice Blanchy
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Since 1969, Larrain has devoted his energies
to photography and has concentrated specifically
on portraiture. In 1973 he published the highly
successful photographic book Idols,
which presented portraits of transvestites.
Larrain sees portraiture as a way to "capture
the landscape of the soul of a person".
His subjects have ranged from dancers to musicians,
artists, celebrities and friends.
Hernan and Charlotte Larrain with Monique
Larrain |
In 1983, he planned to visit Spain for a
couple of weeks and ended up staying more
than two months. Captivated by the flamenco
aesthetic, Gilles became a great follower
of this art. His camera has captured the soul
of flamenco in one of those rare artistic
conjunctions where technical wisdom and experience
become melded with the most difficult to express
emotions.
...biography in progress.
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