His photographer’s eye has definitely closed. Hugues Vassal, co-founder of the Gamma agency and official photographer of Edith Piaf, died on Monday at his home in Tours (Indre-et-Loire), at the age of 89, it was reported. learned this Thursday from his daughter. “He died peacefully, asleep on his desk after working on his next book,” his adopted daughter Solène told AFP, confirming local media reports.
Hugues Vassal, who would have turned 90 on June 17, began his career as a press photographer in France Sunday in 1953. He then specialized in photographing show-business stars, from Johnny Hallyday to Brigitte Bardot.
In 1957, he met and became the friend of Edith Piaf, who asked him to be her official photographer. Hugues Vassal continued, in recent years, to animate exhibitions and conferences on the singer, to whom he devoted several books. In 1966, he co-founded the photo-reportage agency Gamma, with Gilles Caron and Raymond Depardon, among others.
A symbol photo in South Africa
He publishes reports on the Shah of Iran, Richard Nixon or Anouar el-Sadat, but it is a photo taken in 1969 in South Africa that will go around the world. In a stadium near the Bloemfontein gold mine, a rope separates white spectators from black spectators. This photo has become a symbol of the struggle against apartheid.
“This is one of the most beautiful photos of my career”, testified Hugues Vassal on October 9, 2022, at the town hall of Tours, in the presence of the Franco-Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado, who came to give him the knight’s medal. of the Order of Arts and Letters. “Hugues Vassal gave me my first work card. For the immigrant that I was, it was the chance of my life: to be able to stay in France,” said Sebastião Salgado at the time.
A religious ceremony is scheduled for May 22 in Grasse (Alpes-Maritimes) where Edith Piaf died. Another tribute is planned in Tours on June 24.