Jacques-André Boiffard

Jacques -André Boiffard ( born July 29, 1902 in Épernon, Eure- et- Loir, France, † 1961 in Paris ) was a French physician and photographer.

Life

During his medical studies made ​​him his childhood friend, surrealist writer Pierre Naville, with André Breton known. Boiffard then joined the Surrealists and wrote, together with Paul Éluard and Roger Vitrac, the preface to the first issue of La Révolution surréaliste. However, he preferred the photography to writing and became an assistant to Man Ray. With Man Ray, he turned up the surrealistic films L' étoile de mer (1928) and Les Mystères du Château de Dé ( 1929).

In the 1920s Boiffard made ​​portraits of the English writer Nancy Cunard, was commissioned by the company Peignot with Man Ray views of Paris and illustrated Breton's novel Nadja. 1928 Boiffard was surprisingly excluded from the Surrealists because he had made photographs of Simone Breton.

From 1929 he worked with Georges Bataille on the magazine Documents, in his best-known works were published: He illustrated the text Le gros orteil ( The big toe ) Bataille ( Issue 6, 1929), Pygmalion and the Sphinx by Robert Desnos ( output 1, 1930 ) and Eschyle et le carnaval of civilisés by Georges Limbour ( issue 2, 1930). With a contribution to the pamphlet Un Cadavre he attacked André Breton.

From 1929 to 1932 he operated a photo studio together with Eli Lotar. Together with Lotar he wanted to go on a world circles, but the funds were only enough to Tangier. During the political unrest in the 1930s Boiffard was a member of the Prévert brothers (Pierre and Jacques Prévert ) cited left-wing theater group Octobre. From 1932 Boiffard published his work in the context of sympathizing with communism Association des Artistes et Écrivains révolutionnaires.

After the death of his father, 1935, Boiffard took his medical studies again and approved in 1940 in the Department of Radiology. The career as a photographer did not continue.