Daily life according to Edouard Boubat

I discovered the French photographer Édouard Boubat thanks to a post dedicated to Japan, I know it seems strange to say but the post dedicated to Japanese spring made me discover a lot more than it seems. Edouard Boubat is the one who drew the simple daily life of people.

Édouard Boubat was born in Paris in 1923 and died in 1999. He was a French journalist and photographer best known for his work as a photojournalist during the Second World War.

This incredible production earned him several awards such as the Kodak Prize in 1947, David Octavius Hill Medal in 1971 and Grand Prix National de la Photographie in Paris in 1984.

The war plays a fundamental role in its production: the tragedy of war survival, the suffering of people, the reconstruction of what was destroyed helped form his philosophy of deep love and respect for life.

Boubat is a real “peace correspondent“, as the poet said Jacques Prévert, who loves to celebrate the joy of life and the poetic side of it. The subjects of Boubat are ordinary people, children, families and those he meets in his travels around the world. From India to France, from deep South America to Portugal captures universal aspects in all the faces that meet.

Daily life according to Edouard Boubat

In 1946 take one of his most famous photographs: La petite fille aux feuilles mortes (The little girl with the dead leaves) depicting a little girl from behind that “wearing” dead leaves harvested at public park. The picture is really the poster of melancholy and sadness while not disrupting any facial expression that can arouse these emotions.

Parc de Sceaux, Cerisiers Japonais from 1983 is the photo that immortalizes the pure joy. A young man from the obvious Asian traits play among the cherry trees with fallen petals. The expression is joyful but also raised, almost a desperate joy, Perhaps the arrival of spring or perhaps for the excitement of childhood game.

I found it very difficult to choose some photos to insert into post. They are all beautiful in their simplicity and everyday life.