R.I.P. GILLES LARRAIN, Iconic Photographer passes away at 86

💔French-American photographer GILLES LARRAIN passed away on October 7 and leaves an iconic body of work offering infinite nuances full of expressive intensity.

Gilles Larrain has devoted his vision to photographic portraiture. He sees portraiture as a way to “capture the landscape of the soul of a person”. Larrain worked with artists in a wide range of creative disciplines, including the American Ballet Theatre, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Salvador Dali, Miles Davis, Sting, Billy Joel, and many Flamenco artists.

1983 : Flamenco – Photos

“Flamenco is the soul of a people”, he says, “at the confluent of many musical and emotional influences in Andalusia. Even though Franco hated flamenco music, he had no choice but to tolerate it, because Spain without Flamenco would not be Spain anymore. Everything I had to do was to reflect as faithfully as possible the way I experienced that music and lifestyle from the inside”.

Gilles Larrain went on a two-week trip to Andalusia in 1983 to photograph flamenco for GEO magazine. He ended up staying for two months in the attic of La Carboneria—a flamenco venue in Seville — as guest to the owner, Paco Lira, a kind of godfather to the flamenco world. The photos of “Flamenco: Landscapes of its Soul” are the result of Gilles’ endless nights at the Carboneria and his trips with Paco to the homes of some of flamenco’s legendary families. Others were taken at Gilles’ SOHO studio where he continues to photograph flamenco artists that come to New York. Gilles’ one-of-a-kind gelatin silver prints document major contemporary flamenco artists off stage in intimate settings. His photos capture the privileged studio moment and explore the visual aesthetics of flamenco that reflect the austere beauty of the Andalusian landscape.

Excerpt from Trina Bardusco, 2001 – Flamenco: Landscape of its Soul