1914 — 2007
Yvette Troispoux, the French portrait and humanist photographer, was best known for her portrait work depicting other photographers. In 1953, Troispoux joined Les 30x40, the Parisian collective whose members also included Jean Dieuzaide and Robert Doisneau. Here she began taking portraits of group members, and of the many other faces who assembled at events in the art world, shooting on a Leica. Troispoux was deep into her career when an exhibit at the Galerie Odéon-Photos brought her to wider public attention in 1982, and deeper still when a 1990 exhibit at the Agathe Gaillard Gallery bestowed on her the nickname of the "photographer of photographers."
Her reputation was that of being a warm spirit and excellent company, and Troispoux forged lifelong friendships with many of the artists she photographed. Upon turning ninety in 2004, she was invited to curate her favourite pictures from her own body of work for the exhibition Rétrospective les 90 ans d'Yvette Troispoux, having already been honoured by the French state. Troispoux died in 2007. The French National Library went on to purchase her archives for safeguarding. Her legacy is that of a pioneering twentieth century woman who took special interest in those who captured life through a lens, while doing just that herself.
