Exhibition Yves Debraine
Portraits of writers

A Swiss correspondent for a number of European and American newspapers and magazines, the photographer and reporter Yves Debraine (Paris, 1925 – Lausanne, 2011) crossed paths over the course of his career with a myriad of figures in sports, the sciences, culture, and the arts. His portraits of those individuals, the result in some cases of brief interviews, in others of long relationships, filled the pages of the international press, in particular L’illustré, Générations, which he founded, as well as Paris Match, L’Express, Stern, Epoca, Life, Time, and National Geographic.

In the wonderful gallery of portraits found in his photo archives, writers enjoy a place of honor. We see them captured in black and white in carefully posed portraits and quick candid snapshots, in their favorite landscape or indoor space where they most liked to write. It is in their literary milieu at the center of what fed into their work that these poets, novelists, and philosophers are revealed in De Cocteau à Simenon : portraits d’écrivains, edited by the photographer’s son Luc Debraine and published by Éditions Noir sur Blanc.

Echoing this tribute paid to the photographer, the Jan Michalski Foundation is pleased to present a selection of Yves Debraine’s images on display throughout the library’s different floors. The Foundation invites you to come face to face with a host of well-known writers, including Ella Maillart, Jean Giono, Vladimir Nabokov, Georges Simenon, Patricia Highsmith, Jean Cocteau, Jacques Chessex, and Marcel Pagnol.