Clergue, Lucien (b. 1934), French photographer and film-maker, born and resident in Arles. He discovered photography during a harrowing adolescence, his early nudes being a kind of therapy. Later, he related the opulent female forms sparkling in sea foam published in Corps mémorables (1957) to the experience of washing his emaciated, dying mother, and photographing dead animals floating in the Rhône. He subsequently photographed nudes in the Camargue, Death Valley, California, and in cities on both sides of the Atlantic. Other photographic and film subjects included bullfighting, the Camargue landscape, and his friend Picasso (Picasso, De Guernica aux Mousquetaires, 1969). He began using colour in 1971 and Polaroids in 1981. He co-founded and for 25 years directed the Arles Festival.
— Robin Lenman
Bibliography
- Lucien Clergue: grands nus (1999)
