Edouard Boubat: Inspiration From Masters Of Photography

Édouard Boubat was born in Paris and he studies typography and graphic arts at Ecole Estienne. He worked for a prnting company before becoming a photographer. In 1943 he was subjected to service du travali obligatoire, forced labour of French people in Nazi Germany, and witnessed the horrors of World War II. He took his first photograph after the war in 1946 and was awarded the Kodak Prize the following year.

He travelled the world for the French magazine Réalités and later worked as a freelance photographer. French poet Jacques Prévert called him a “peace correspondent” as he was apolitical and photographed uplifting subjects. His son Bernard Boubat is also a photographer. Hi notable awads include Kodak Prize (1947), David Octavius Hill Medal (1971), Grand Prix National de la Photographie (1984) and Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography (1988).

Famous Photography Quotes from Edouard Boubat

Taking photographs is not something that happens only in a moment I press the button. It is a full-time occupation. For me there is difference between leisure and work.
A photographer is a witness. He has a moral duty. Every picture must be true and honest. I believe a photographer’s strength is his ability to accurately record reality. There are photographers who think they are lucky if they find unusual or special subject. But it is never the subject that is so marvelous. It is how alive and real the photographer can make it.
My pictures do not belong to me.
There are certain pictures I can never take. We turn on the TV and are smothered with cruelty and suffering and I don’t need to add to it. So I just photograph peaceful things. A vase of flowers, a beautiful girl. Sometimes, through a peaceful face, I can bring something important into the world.
To live, to experience the world, to communicate with a camera, all these are interrelated and cannot be separated from everyday live.