PIERRE BOULAT

1924 - 1998

Pierre Boulat was born in Condé-Sainte-Libiaire, France in 1924. He starts taking pictures in 1938. In 1940, in Paris, he enrolled in the French National School of photography and film from which he graduated at the head of his class. In 1943 to escape forced labor in Germany, he fled to the French Free zone and ended up in Vichy working for the SCP, the French government’s photography service.

After the Liberation, he starts working for the French press for which he covered celebrities, crimes and current events. He made his first trip to the United States, which lasted four months, before discovering the Middle East.

In 1948, he moved to Cairo where he published Images d’ Egypte.
1948, Back to Paris he opened a fashion studio and worked as a freelancer for the Parisian and American press. He shoots numerous feature stories including « L’Enfance Perdue » for Look Magazine for which he received the Encyclopedia Britannica Prize.

After 1957 he signed his first exclusive contract with the prestigious Life magazine. His collaboration with the prestigious magazine lasted until it closed in December 1972: News, Politics, Fashion, People, and features. Several of his photo stories were scoops. In 1967 he shoots in Namibia desert the background pictures for the first part of Stanley Kubrick’s « 2001 space Odyssey ».

Back to free lancing after the closing of Life magazine, he works for various French and foreign magazines. In 1982, he began collaboration with French magazine Paris Match, which lasted ten years and allowed him to develop his skills in international photo reporting in color.
In 1994 he was named Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters. His work his shown in various galleries in Paris and outside. The National Foundation for Contemporary Art in Paris has acquired several of his photographs.

Books:
Images d’Egypte – 1948
Paris – Editions Time Life
Le Sahara – 1975 – editions Time Life
Yves Saint Laurent au MOMA – Catalogue de l’exposition – 1984
Mes Années Life – 1992
Bonne Nuit Pierre – 1996
Naissance d’une légence – 1999 – Editions La Martinière
Monographie – 2011 – editions Nicolas Chaudun

Exhibitions:
Le débarquement sur les plages de Normandie – Galerie Olympus, Paris 1984
La Révolution française – Galerie Canon, Paris 1989
Mes Années Life – Visa pour l’Image – Perpginan, 1992 –
Mes Années Life – Galerie Arrêt sur l’Image, Bordeaux 1993
Mes Années Life – Librairie La Chambre claire, Paris 1993
Mes Années Life – FNAC, Lyon 1994
Femmes – Espace Chenel, Montrouge 1993
Perpignan c’est ça – Visa pour L’image 1993
Moments Donnés – Visa pour L’Image, Perpignan 1998
Moments Donnés – Les Archives Nationales, Paris 1998
Yves Saint Laurent – FNAC, Paris 2002
Rétrospective Pierre Boulat – Le mois de la Photo, Moscou 2010
Pierre Boulat photo-reporter – Petit Palais, Paris 2011
Pierre Boulat photo-reporter – Dali, Chine 2012
Pierre Boulat photo-reporter – Base sous-marine, Bordeaux 2012