Pierre Jamet

Throughout his childhood Pierre Jamet had two passions : singing, which after the second world war would become a rewarding activity for him, and photography which remained his hobby throughout his life.
Always being self-taught, at the start of the 1930s, he began learning photographic techniques with the help of books and created his first darkroom in his bathroom. Later he would set up a more spacious studio in the Montparnasse district of Paris.
In the decade before the war the life of Pierre Jamet was full of a diverse mix of careers: a radio operator in the merchant marines, dancer in the dance company of Hans Weidt, singer in the chorus of the A.E.A.R. (Association of Revolutionary Writers and Artists), director of a summer camp on Belle Île en Mer, and in 1937, an active participant in the youth hostel movement which became an important development under the Popular Front.
HIs life stabilized after the war when he became a member of the vocal quartet « Les Quatre Barbus ». All throughout his eclectic journey, over his many trips, meetings, friendships, and often participating in significant political events of the 20th century, Pierre Jamet photographed freely in order to « prolong the ephemeral and save the moment ». He always held the places, and more often the people, in a warm and empathetic regard. From his photographs an undeniable joy for life emerges, even if it is sometimes obscured by a poetic nostalgia.