Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite)

2012 Elger Esser

Discover the work of Elger Esser in an exhibition of photographs that, at first sight, appear to have somehow merged with the paintings of nineteenth century artists. However, Elger Esser is definitely a photographer, even if his huge realist landscapes transport us to idyllic scenes of nature reminiscent of Flaubert or Maupassant.

Elger Esser was born in 1967 and spent his childhood in Rome; his mother was a photographer and his father a writer. He later studied with Bernd Becher at the Kunstacademie in Dusseldorf. Subsequently, his taste for the drawings of Poussin and Lorrain, and his familiarity with the Italian landscape artists, contributed to his development of a painterly style of photography.

These entrancing, timeless images have attracted museums all over the world.
Initially, we were also drawn to them. But our choice for the Lafite 2012 New Year's card settled on another of his specialities: a mastery of black and white and the subtle variations of grey.
It is the essence of photography, a form of writing with light.

2011 Eliott ERWITT

In Janine Niepce's opinion, and our own, Elliott Erwitt belongs to a very rare category of photographers, those who make us laugh. We enjoyed his humour this year at the MEP's exhibition in Paris. Every ten steps, or every third picture, there was something to make one laugh, or at least smile.

The son of Russian immigrants, Elliott Erwitt was born in 1928 in Paris. He joined Magnum Photos in New York in the fifties.
For over 50 years, his reports and illustrations have appeared in publications all over the world. And today, he continues to produce images with the same originality and finesse.

For the 2011 greetings card, Elliott Erwitt cast his sensitive eye on Château Lafite. The eye of a master, who likes to describe himself as an "amateur", in the literal sense of one who loves.

2010 Béatrice Caracciolo

Beatrice Caracciolo, a second photograph for this collection, after her Mer d’Aquitaine in 2006. For 2010, it is her picture of Château Lafite’s majestic cedar tree – before the storm in 1999 – that illustrates the Domaines’ greetings card.

2010 is also an important year for Beatrice Caracciolo in her career as a painter. The French Academy in Rome is organizing an exhibition of her works entitled Tumulti at the Villa Medicis, from 24 January to 14 March 2010.

2009 William KLEIN

Photographer, film director, painter and a lover of big cities, William Klein defies classification as an artist.
Born in New York in 1928, Klein came to Paris at the age of twenty and, seduced by its charms, has stayed there ever since. Before becoming a photographer, Klein studied painting, in particular with André Lhote, and it was then that his ideas began to form.

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2008 Paolo ROVERSI

Born in 1947 in Ravenna in Italy, Paolo Roversi is one of the most famous fashion photographers in the world.
His elegant style, which is both gentle and strong, is influenced by his Italian and Parisian background.
It is either poetically coloured or in well controlled black and white. Roversi likes to mix the past and the present...

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2007 Marie-Laure de DECKER

A senior journalist with the Gamma agency, at the age of 23 she was already covering major world events and conflicts. She is an expert on Vietnam, South Africa, Chad and Chile. Her photos are realistic, often poetic. Her portraits and fashion photographs show her eye for fine, rich detail. For the past four years, she has been covering a tribe from southern Chad, the Woodabes.

2006 Béatrice CARACCIOLO

An Italian citizen, Béatrice Caracciolo was a student at the University of New York and Columbia. A painter and also a photographer in her spare time, Béatrice Caracciolo started showing her work in the nineties. The international art scene welcomed her with warmth, notably for exhibitions she held in Paris and New York. Château Lafite Rothschild is a haven of peace for the artist as illustrated in this photograph of a landscape where the horizon appears to fade away, giving way to a dream-like scene.

2005 Esther SOBIN

A young photographer born in Provence of English and American parents, she studied in Paris before heading for New York to work in cinema. Since 1999 her photographic work has been exhibited in the southeast of France and in the United States. Esther Sobin takes photographs of “internal” landscapes, those of her childhood, those to which she has always returned. The artist sets out to rediscover the magic of certain instants, those unique moments that allow us to see things in a new light.

2004 Martine FRANK

Martine Frank studied History of Art in Madrid and at Le Louvre in Paris. She started as a photographer at Life magazine. As a member of Magnum Agency since 1983, she has portrayed artists, writers and has also done humanitary reporting. She was also involved for several years with the association “Petits Frères des Pauvres”. Her work was widely exhibited and was also shown in various publications.
This reporting on Château Lafite Rothschild was done on the occasion of a summer trip with her partner.

2003 Janine NIEPCE

Janine Niepce was the daughter of a Bourguignon winemaker who moved from her countryside to Paris to escape the phylloxera crisis at the beginning of the century. Her distant relative, Nicéphore, was one of the inventors of photography. As soon as she started her studies in art and archaeology, Janine was passionate about photography and dedicated herself completely to this art after the war. Janine Niepce’s pictures were broadly diffused, contributing to the creation of France’s image in the 60s. It recalls notably 50 years of the evolution of the feminine condition. For Château Lafite, Janine Niepce took several shots among them the one showing the Château’s reflection in the pond. Shown upside down, it gives a UFO appearance to the water lilies that are then located in the sky…

2002 Richard AVEDON

Richard Avedon was involved in fashion and in photography from his youth. His father was the owner of a women's apparel store, and his mother collected fashion magazines and was an amateur photographer. In 1942, he did his military service in the photo department of the American merchant marine. In 1945, he presented his portfolio to A. Brodovitch, the artistic director of Harper's Bazaar, who became his mentor. Through that initial contact, he founded a collaboration that lasted 20 years. He went on to work for major agencies (Egoïst, Look, Graphis…), and made many advertising campaigns. He is recognized as one of the greatest photographers of the 1950's, and explored the "emotional geometry" of the face and body.

2001 François Marie BANIER

This is the second contribution of François Marie Banier in this collection (his earlier photograph was in 1994). The charm of this photograph is a symbol of the new millenium - love and creation. François Marie Banier is a writer, painter and photographer, famous for many photographs of famous people in the performing arts.

2000 Antonin BORGEAUD

Antonin Borgeaud is the youngest of the photographers contributing to Lafite's great photo library. His dual talent as a poet and photographer did not keep him from working for the newspaper Libération; reporting on South America, Mongolia, and in Southern France. He also made several very fine portraits. Antonin Borgeaud's vision can be seen in this greeting card which looks more like a booklet full of images that he made of Château Lafite Rothschild.

1999 Jean Michel FAUQUET

Born in 1950 in London, Jean Michel Fauquet spent 12 years in Canada, where he taught photography at an University. He settled in Paris and made his first exhibition there. His work looks more like oil paintings than photographs. His way of capturing light and shapes is very distinguished. Both his printing techniques and his use of specialized papers and supports make him something of an alchemist. Drawings, paintings, sculpture, and photography are all techniques that he uses in creating images.

1998 Bernard TOUILLON

Bernard Touillon is a great still life photographer. He is much admired by the most famous magazines for his creative obsessions. For this composition, Bernard Touillon processed with a particular relief technique, with the help of the photographer Homi. The effect is delightful, like an invitation to sit down and have a glass of wine.

1997 Franck HORVAT

Frank Horvat was 15 when he exchanged his stamp collection for a 35mm Reinamat camera. He initially studied drawing at the Accademia di Brera, and then worked in an advertising agency. In 1949, he began making photos for magazines as a freelance photographer. In 1957, he became famous on the Paris fashion scene (Elle, Glamour, Vogue etc.). In 1989, he experimented with digital imaging, a method that was used in his greeting card showing a fox in a plot of hundred-year-old grapevines at Château Lafite Rothschild. This composition with the animal came from a suggestion from Baron Eric, and the artist went about creating the image with great enthusiasm.

1996 Andy GOLDSWORTHY

One of the greatest figures in British Land Art, the sculptor Andy Goldsworthy is famous throughout the world due to his work in harmony with nature. His interests include ice, stone, leaves, wood, the sea, creeks and rivers. Nature is of great inspiration to him. For Château Lafite Rothschild, he photographed these "black holes", to him, it evoked the creation of the world…

1995 Jorge DAMONTE

Jorge Damonte spent his youth in Montevideo and Paris, as his family lived in exile in order to escape military dictatorship. Culture and art were his family's passions. He began making photos with an old Polaroid when he was just 10 years old, then worked alongside Jaime Giralt Font, a popular journalist. At 26 years old, he was already an expert photographer. In 1974, he settled down permanently in Paris, and made pictures for the theater. Later, he went on to work for Yves Saint-Laurent. He had his first show in Paris in 1984. Over the last twenty years, he quit making commercial photographs in order to concentrate on the total freedom of his artwork. Baron Eric and Daniel Vignat got hold of him during his panoramic phase…

1994 François Marie BANIER

François Marie Banier was sixteen years old when he met Salvador Dali, who was very interested in his drawings. That meeting would be enlightening for him. A writer, painter and photographer, he became Pierre Cardin's favorite photographer, and is called the photographer of the stars. But he has a piercing gaze on other subjects as well. He had total freedom for his work at Lafite and took advantage of it. His photographs were used for 2 greetings cards : 1994 and 2001.

1993 Robert DOISNEAU

Robert Doisneau entered the Ecole Estienne in Paris in 1925, where he received training as a lithographer. He started his career in drawing letters and making advertising photos. He had a particular interest in portraying workers' living conditions. The photograph made for Château Lafite Rothschild illustrates that very style that made him famous. He died just a year after making this photograph in April 1994. This work is the product of Daniel Vignat's patience, as it took him 2 years just to meet the "master". It only took a few minutes to convince him, though. Their meeting was even more interesting as they evoked their mutual friendship for Jacques Prévert, the poet that Doisneau considered as his brother.

1992 Jean Baptiste MONDINO

Jean Baptiste Mondino was involved early as a Publicis graphics artist before taking his chance on a Dim campaign, which was a breakthrough for him. He is particularly keen on photographing rock groups - he is very much into music. Then there are stars like Sting, Madonna, Vanessa Paradis, etc. who call on him to make their videos. He is also very appreciated by the leaders of the fashion world (Jean-Paul Gautier, Yves Saint-Laurent, Christian Dior, etc.) It is the originality and his sense of light that interested Baron Eric and Daniel Vignat. At Château Lafite, his eyes focused on the vision of barrels that leave their marks on walls, which made him think of stone paintings.

1991 Tessa TRAEGER

A renowned British photographer, Tessa Traeger photographs, then edits, and then fundamentally alters her vision. Her work was widely published by Vogue in the United Kingdom, which is very interested in her kind of vision. She pursues her work today with creative methods. For this photograph, she first photographed the château and its environment by sequences and then made giant prints of them. Then she went and gathered flowers, fruit and leaves from the property, and covered the vast prints while respecting the colours of the photos. Then she re-photographed these puzzle pieces and put it all together in the computer!

1990 Michel GUILLARD

Michel Guillard is best known as the cofounder, along with Jean Paul Kaufmann, of the monthly review L'Amateur de Bordeaux. This magazine is the official review of Bordeaux wines, and is distinguished by the quality of its photography, its layout, and its writing, which owe much to Michel Guillard. He has been a recurrent guest at Lafite, and made several photographic reports. This photograph is a brilliant example of his artistic vision: men, a vineyard, a cellar, and a heritage.

1989 Keiichi TAHARA

Keiichi Tahara moved to Paris in 1973. After making two short films in Japan, he opted for a photographic approach based on chiaroscuro techniques and textural and material effects. Considered as one of the best architectural photographers, he has produced visionary creations for various countries and renowned museums. He received the Nicéphore Niepce in 1988 and the Grand Prix of the Paris municipality in 1995. He was the obvious choice for photographing the newly constructed cellar.

1988 Irving PENN

Irving Penn photographed the century's leading personalities: artists, dancers, filmmakers, musicians, architects, and writers. In 1950, he made the first of his 27 seasons in Fashion Design, and in 1964 restored the platinum-palladium technique, a development with velvety tones, which had been abandoned since 1900. With an intensely straightforward vision, Penn methodically created fashion designs, still life, nudes and ethnographic subjects (indigenous from Peru, Nepal etc.) The New York Museum of Modern Art hosted an Irving Penn retrospective in 1984. This photo was initially a sketch on a wrinkled page of a dairy, and sent by mail. After the surprise suggestion, total liberty was given to the artist.

1987 Jean LARIVIÈRE

In the 1980s, Jean Larivière was already famous for his advertising graphics - excellent artwork - for Louis Vuitton. He is the favorite of specialised agencies such as "Egoïst", he does what they call "magnificent elegance". A young and skilled individual born in 1940, he adds a new tone alternating between generations in photography, keeping up with the hopes of Baron Eric and Daniel Vignat. His photo on the terrace of the château symbolizes the sustaining of the property beyond individual generations (the painting at the foot of the tree is a portrait of Baroness Charlotte, daughter of Baron James de Rothschild, by Harry Sheffer).

1986 Jacques Henri LARTIGUE

Jacques Henri Lartigue became a photographer at a very young age. Before going on to become one of the most famous photographers of the 20th century following his first personal showing at the New York Museum of Modern Art in 1963, J.H. Lartigue was a renowned painter between the world wars. Jacques Henri Lartigue passed away on the same year that he made this magnificent photo of Château Lafite Rothschild and its grapevines in 1985. Daniel Vignat only needed to place one single phone call to J.H. Lartigue, who at 91 years old was still very enthusiastic, taking his camera cross on one shoulder, his only worry being to make sure that there were good wines to sip!

1985 Fred JOURDA

A graduate of the Louis-Lumière school in Paris, he became a colour printer at Picto, a speciality which has always fascinated him and which he still practices for large format photographs. Fred Jourda has his brightest moments in the darkroom. He travels the world to find wide open spaces, light and horizons. He uses an instamatic camera. No adjustments, no amazing technique, no composition, just his point of view and the frame: the key to his work is in the contemplation of nature.

1984 Nicholas VREELAND

A Buddhist monk, Nicholas Vreeland or “Nicky” is also a photographer. He photographed the Dalaï Lama in the United States in 1979. During a trip to Dharamsala with a big wooden view camera to take portraits of holy men, he decided that he wanted to become a monk and was ordained in the nineties. His pictures at Lafite express the mellowness of a peaceful soul.

1983 Alexandre BAILLACHE

He was assistant to François Halard and then to Jacques Dirand. He worked for La maison de Marie-Claire and Vogue and then continued in U.S.A. with House and Garden. He currently specializes in plant compositions and occasionally portraits.

1982 Alexandre AMIC

Amic became a photographer in 1990 and went to China. He has done a lot of documentary work in India.
As a photographer and a ship's carpenter, his portraits depend on where he is working. For him, his photographs are an accumulation of “traces of life”.

1981 Pascal DOLEMIEUX

“Try to take photographs of real life without changing it,” he has said, but has then set about changing it with made-up images, compositions... In 1981, he received the national photography foundation prize followed a few years later by the Niepce prize, and many subsequent distinctions. He says of himself: “I look at the world through the window of an obscure room… sometimes the world is not enough for me… you need something of everything to make a world, or to invent others.”

1980 Marc RIBOUD

Riboud joined Magnum Photos in 1953. His ability to capture life’s ephemeral moments with powerful compositions was already apparent and would serve him well in the decades that followed. He travelled in India from 1955 to 1957 and then, in 1957, was one of the first Europeans to go to China. He became vice-president of Magnum for Europe in 1959. Riboud witnessed the horrors of war and the significant erosion of repressed cultures. And yet, he was able to capture the charm of daily life in faraway places bathed in sunshine and the lyricism of children’s games in everyday Paris.

1979 Alexandre BAILLACHE

He was assistant to François Halard and then to Jacques Dirand. He worked for La maison de Marie-Claire and Vogue and then continued in U.S.A. with House and Garden. He currently specializes in plant compositions and occasionally portraits.

1978 Richard KALVAR

Having studied English and American literature he became assistant to fashion photographer Jérôme Ducrot in 1965. He spent some time in New York and then returned to Paris. A member of the VU agency, he started VIVA and joined MAGNUM, of which he became president. His work mainly focuses on daily urban life which he has photographed extensively all over the world. Richard Kalvar is one of those rare birds who make you laugh.

1977 Horst P.HORST

Born in Germany, he mainly worked in the United States. A fashion photographer, he was influenced by Greek sculpture, the people of the world and Hoyginen-Huene of whom he was a student. He succeeded him at Vogue and quickly became established as one of the great photographers of elegance and glamour.
When he came to take pictures at Lafite he projected his vision of women from another period: a woman in red in a red room with a red rose.

1976 Willy RONIS

Willy Ronis joined the Rapho agency after the war and participated in “Regards”, “Time” and “Life”. He was a member of the “Group of XV” alongside Robert Doisneau.
A man of Paris’s twentieth arrondissement and of the twentieth century, he liked documenting the everyday life of ordinary people; he produced elegant photographs of Provence and at the age of 98, lays bare the women who have inspired him. His work is exhibited in museums all over the world.