Rock by Leloir

Jean-Pierre Leloir…
A name that makes music lovers dream. And for good reason! In 1966, Jean-Pierre, master of black and white, specialist of music photography (Piaf, Trenet, Brel and Brassens) joined the young magazine Rock&Folk. At Philippe Koechlin's request, he became part of the small battalion of young journalists, photographers and other good-for-nothing people who gravitated towards rock.

The time is prodigious. Without hesitation, Jean-Pierre, the jazz fanatic, moves on to rock and soul. He shoots exceptional pictures of Aretha Franklin or James Brown. Otis Redding is his favorite and becomes his friend. Soon, his colleagues will give him a nickname: Jean-Pierre is simply the Eye. And as he says it himself: he never misses a photo.

One day in the 70's, we all meet in the lounges of the George V for a morning press conference of Jethro Tull. Ian Anderson, the singer and flutist of the group launches into a great explanation of his new album and decrees: "at the beginning of the recording I had ideas of songs, but it was rather foggy, (pointing to Jean-Pierre who attends the conference standing up, cameras slung over his shoulder) a little like you, Mr. Photographer, when you make a blurred photo .... "
-Know young man that I NEVER take a blurry picture!
Jean-Pierre is launched. In flight. Unleashed. His exchange with the unfortunate singer is hilarious, worthy of Pierre Dac, chiseled in perfect English.

With us young rockers, Jean-Pierre will live countless adventures, approaching Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Cream, Frank Zappa, Queen. Without forgetting the heroes of soul music, from the Supremes to Stevie Wonder. Fascinated by the incredible Jimi Hendrix, Jean-Pierre take with the left-handed guitarist legendary shots, stage or backstage.

When I became editor-in-chief of Rock&Folk in 1995, I immediately suggested to Jean-Pierre that he get back to business by going to photograph Prince... A terrible moment. Pulling on his whistle, the Eye confesses a terrible secret: he is now almost blind.

So there will be no more new Leloir photos... But until the end, helped by the faithful Marion, his daughter, we worked together, in total harmony, drawing from his fabulous archives the material for many Special Issues.

All these fabulous documents, witnesses of a bygone era, continue to exist, to live, to pulsate with incandescent electricity.

Thank you Jean-Pierre, you and I knew it, but it is now a certainty: your work beautifully supports the famous test of time... (I wish I could say the same about my old articles...).

Philippe Manœuvre, September 2021

The French photographer Jacques Léonard (1909-1994) has always been linked to the world of images. He began working at the Gaumont studios in Paris and collaborated with Abel Gance in J'accuse, Louise and Paradis perdu. During a trip to Spain for the spotting of a film, he met the head of the Cinematography Department of the Ministry of the Interior, from whom he was a protégé in the following years and who offered him to work for Ulargui Films where he edited some films.

In 1952, he moves to Barcelona where he fell in love with Rosario Amaya, a gypsy from the barracks of Montjuïc. He then became a photographer. working for various magazines in Spain. The doors of all the barracks were open to the Gadjo Chac, as the large gypsy family called him. He documented the culture and the gypsy people from a historical and contemporary point of view, transmitting an image of absolute dignity, a true work of ethnologist. This photographic archive is the most important one kept on gypsies and their culture in Barcelona, from 1952 until the mid-70s.