Eliane Laffont is a New York-based editor, creative director, image consultant and entrepreneur. She notably opened the U.S. office of Gamma Press Images with her husband

Jean-Pierre Laffont Jean-Pierre Laffont (born 1935) is a French-American photojournalist born in Algeria, and based in New York City, USA. He was the founding member of both Gamma USA and Sygma, which then became one of the largest and most influential photography ...

in 1968 and in 1973 co-founded the breakaway Sygma Photo News Agency, the largest photography agency in the world. Laffont currently serves as a senior consultant for Visa pour l'Image.

Early life

Laffont was born in

Burgundy Burgundy ( ; ; Burgundian: ''Bregogne'') is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, and raised in

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

, where she attended school in

Casablanca Casablanca (, ) is the largest city in Morocco and the country's economic and business centre. Located on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Chaouia (Morocco), Chaouia plain in the central-western part of Morocco, the city has a populatio ...

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

. She completed her studies in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, where she received dual

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

degrees. In 1965, Laffont, along with close friends Michèle Ray, Martine Libersart and Betty Gérard, completed a 30,000 mile endurance race from

Tierra del Fuego Tierra del Fuego (, ; Spanish for "Land of Fire", rarely also Fireland in English) is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South America, South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of the main is ...

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

for

Renault Renault S.A., commonly referred to as Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English), is a French Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company curr ...

. They travelled from Ushuaia, through to Central America, from Las Vegas and Canada to Anchorage, where the journey ended. In 1966, Eliane moved to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and married

photojournalist Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (suc ...

Career

Gamma Press Images

In 1968 Eliane and Jean-Pierre Laffont opened the first U.S office of Gamma Press Images. Originally a French photo agency,

Gamma Gamma (; uppercase , lowercase ; ) is the third letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 3. In Ancient Greek, the letter gamma represented a voiced velar stop . In Modern Greek, this letter normally repr ...

rose to prominence in May 1968 because of the documentation of the uprising in Paris and the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

. The first client that Laffont had was with John Durniak, the director of photography from ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'', who once said in ''

Popular Photography ''Popular Photography'', formerly known as ''Popular Photography & Imaging'', also called ''Pop Photo'', is a monthly American consumer website and former magazine that at one time had the largest circulation of any imaging magazine, with an edit ...

'' magazine that "Eliane Laffont was the pioneer of 'the French Connection' of the new wave of photo agencies".

Sygma Photo News Agency

Eliane and Jean-Pierre Laffont left Gamma and, in 1973, co-founded the breakaway agency Sygma Photo News Agency. Laffont initially served as general manager, and then as president of

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

for three decades. Before Sygma was acquired in 1999, the agency had grown into the largest photo agency in the world. In 1998, ''Photographer's Forum'' magazine announced that "Sygma is now the largest and most successful photo news agency (in America) and Eliane Laffont has become one of the ... most respected businesswomen in the photography community." In June 1999, it was announced that Bill Gates' Corbis Images had attained Sygma, resulting in Corbis Sygma. Laffont continued to oversee operations within Corbis Sygma's U.S. operations, and was appointed director of Corbis Sygma/ New York. Later, she was promoted to vice-president of editorial content. In 2001, Laffont left Corbis Sygma.

Hachette Filipacchi Media

In 2000 Laffont joined

Hachette Filipacchi Media Hachette may refer to: * Hachette (surname) * Hachette Livre, a French publisher, the imprint of Lagardère Publishing ** Hachette Book Group, the American subsidiary ** Hachette Distribution Services, the distribution arm See also * Hachette Fili ...

, the New York subsidiary of Hachette Filipacchi Médias, one of the world's largest magazine publishers. Laffont became editorial director, supervising the photographic production in the U.S, and developing the photo division into three sections: photojournalism, photo illustration and photo reportage.

2000s

Laffont actively contributes to the photography community, and still serves as a Senior Consultant for Visa pour l'Image, the largest international festival of photojournalism, in

Perpignan Perpignan (, , ; ; ) is the prefectures in France, prefecture of the Pyrénées-Orientales departments of France, department in Southern France, in the heart of the plain of Roussillon, at the foot of the Pyrenees a few kilometres from the Me ...

, France. Arnold Drapkin, the director at Palm Beach Photo describes Laffont as "a towering figure in photojournalism and documentary photography, she is responsible for discovering and nurturing more photographers, helping to keep their dreams alive (and pay the rent), and inspiring them with her brand of tough love, to do their best creative work." Currently, Laffont and her husband reside in New York City. They have one daughter, Stephanie, and two granddaughters, Sparrow and Silvie.

Career overview

* 1968: Founded Gamma Press Images * 1973: Founded Sygma Photo Agency * 1978-1979: Director of photography for '' Look'' magazine * 1979: Jury member, National Press Photographer's Association, Pictures of the Year Competition,

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou or MU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri, United States. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Univers ...

* 1987: Board of directors, Eddie Adams Workshop * 1999: Appointed director of Corbis/Sygma * 2000: Editorial director for Hachette Filipacchi Media * 2001-2008: Contributing editor for ''American Photo'' * 2003: On the board of directors for the Alexia Foundation * 2003 - 2004: U.S. judge for French Association for Women Photojournalists * 2005: On the board of directors at MediaStorm Multimedia, curator of the "Eddie Adams Show" at "Visa pour l'Image", Perpignan, France *2006: Jury member of World Press Photo Foundation, jury member of Getty Images grants program & jury member for the National Press Photographer's Association's ''Pictures of the Year International''. *2008: Jury member for CHIPP (China International Photo Contest)

Awards

* The Leica Medal of Excellence was awarded for the 1992 picture book 'In the Eye of Desert Storm', featuring 24 photographers from Sygma agency. * In 2008 the Spotlight Award was given to the Visa pour l'Image consultants at the Lucie Awards. * In 2009 Laffont was awarded the Life Achievement Award from the Griffin Museum

Notable positions

* International Advisory Committee and jury member, W. Eugene Smith Award * In 1985, 2008 and 2010, Laffont served as jury member for the Overseas Press Club * Photo editor, "Day in the Life" book series * Director of Photography for "''A Day in the Life of Africa''", published in 2002 * Curator of "In the Eye of Desert Storm", published by Nikon House in 1991

References

External links

Eliane Laffont: Only In America
at The Click by Glitterati Incorporated {{DEFAULTSORT:Laffont, Eliane American magazine editors American women magazine editors American photojournalists 20th-century American women journalists 21st-century American women journalists Living people Year of birth missing (living people)