Turbulent America

Protests, demonstrations, daily life on the streets: known as a distinguished chronicler, Jean-Pierre Laffont documented the USA from the sixties to the eighties. A retrospective of the Leica photograher’s work is now on display in Mestre, Italy.

1965 – a country undergoing great changes: when Jean-Pierre Laffont (born 1935) arrived in New York he found the city in a desolate situation. In the mid sixties he turned his eye not only to the metropolis, but to the whole country, that was about to undergo deep political and societal changes: “It looked like everyone was in the streets protesting.

In the seventies, the American dream seemed to be disintegrating. The American people no longer trusted their government,” the US American photographer with French-Algerian roots remembers. A renowned photo journalist, he became a chronicler of a whole generation, reporting on the rise of the Black Power movement and the Ku Klux Klan, as well as the end of the Vietnam war and the hippie movement.

According to Laffont, the current exhibition represents “a personal and historical portrait of a country I have always viewed critically but affectionately, and to which I bear immense gratitude”.

Organised by Eliane Laffont and Elisabetta Da Lio, in collaboration with Photo Op, the exhibition can be seen at the Centro Culturale Candiani in Mestre, Venince, up until May 30.

Further information available at: www.culturavenezia.it