Leo Touchet to be honored as Living Legends
Andy Perrin, chairman of the Executive Committee of the Acadian Museum, announces that the Acadian Museum will induct Leo Touchet into its Order of Living Legends on Saturday, January 12, 2019.
The event will take place at the Joie de Vivre Restaurant, Cafe & Bar, 107 N. Main St., Breaux Bridge, LA 70592 at 1:30 p.m.
Leo Touchet’s earliest memory of photography was at the age of six in his hometown of Abbeville, when an uncle returned from World War II with boxes of photographs he had taken, and he has since wanted to travel.
While in high school, he was selected to be the school photographer. His equipment then was an old 4x5 Crown Graphic Camera with screw in flash bulbs.
After high school and a stint in the Army, he enrolled in Architecture school at the University of Southwest Louisiana (now the University of Louisiana Lafayette).
There he was introduced to composition, form, light and perspective. His photography has since used all of these elements. Most of his photos are full-frame images, cropped in the camera.
He later worked in Cleveland and New York as a draftsman and later as an industrial designer.
Eventually he became bored with working in an office on a drawing board. In July 1965, on a visit to the Museum of Modem Art (MOMA), he was captivated by the photos of Henri Cartier-Bresson. The next day, he bought a used Leica M2 camera and began photographing on the streets of New York.
The photography archives at MOMA were open to the public and most of his photography education resulted from his many hours studying photos of Cartier-Bresson, Paul Strand, Eugene Smith, Edward Steichen, Gordon Parks and many other photographers in the collection. Later that year, he bought a ticket to Vietnam to become a photographer.
Over the last 50 years, he has worked for numerous national and international publications, traveling to over 50 countries around the world. Following are some of the places where his photographs have been displayed.
Books
REJOICE WHEN YOU DIE - The New Orleans Jazz Funerals (LSU Press 1998)
PEOPLE AMONG US - Photography by Leo Touchet (Photo Circle Press (2018)
AT THE RACES - Photography by Leo Touchet (Photo Circle Press (2018)
CHASING SHADOWS - Desert Sand Dunes (Photo Circle Press (2018)
DUET - Poet & Photographer Yellow Flag Press (2018)
FLOWERS - In Black & White (Photo Circle Press (2018)
Collections
Sir Elton John Photography Collection
New Orleans Museum of Art
Museum of Fine Arts (Houston)
Bibliotheque Nationale (France)
Publications
Life Magazine - Time Magazine - Newsweek Magazine
Fortune Magazine - Money Magazine
U.S. News & World Report - Country Journal
Group Exhibitions
PHOTOGRAPHY USA 1976
United States Bicentennial Exhibit to the Soviet Union & Eastern Europe
IMAGES OF MISSISSIPPI
Lauren Rogers Museum Laurel, Mississippi
REGARDS et MEMOIRES - ARLES 2008
Four separate exhibits including public street banners
during the 39th Annual Photo Expo in Arles, France