Albert Plécy (26 August 1914,

Wormhout Wormhout (; before 1975: ''Wormhoudt''; ) is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. Several people in Wormhout still speak West Flemish, a local dialect of Dutch and the traditional language of the region, while French-speaker ...

– 1 May 1977,

Les Baux-de-Provence Les Baux-de-Provence (; "Les Baux of Provence"; Provençal: ''Lei Bauç de Provença'' or ''Li Baus de Prouvènço'' ), commonly referred to simply as Les Baux, is a rural commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in the Provence-Alpes-C� ...

) was a French journalist, painter, photographer and filmmaker, specialist in the language of the image. He was, along with

Jacques Henri Lartigue Jacques Henri Lartigue (; 13 June 1894 – 12 September 1986) was a French photographer and painter, known for his photographs of automobile races, planes and female Parisian fashion models. Biography Born in Courbevoie in western Paris to a ...

and Raymond Grosset, one of the three emblematic founders of the association of Gens d'images.

Biography

Albert Plécy was born on 26 August 1914 in Wormhout to mother, Marcelle (née Dehaene 1887–1981) and Frédéric Plécy, corporal in the 8th Territorial Infantry Regiment, killed 18 October 1916 in Péramy during the

Meuse–Argonne offensive The Meuse–Argonne offensive (also known as the Meuse River–Argonne Forest offensive, the Battles of the Meuse–Argonne, and the Meuse–Argonne campaign) was a major part of the final Allies of World War I, Allied Offensive (military), offe ...

when Albert was two and his elder brother four.''Plécy, Albert (1914–1977)'' .''Plécy, Albert (1914–1977)'' (notice IdREF .. During the Second World War, he was a second lieutenant, seconded in 1943 to the French expeditionary force, and at the request of General Alphonse Juin, he became the head of the Army Cinema Service (SCA) in the theatre of foreign operations in Tunisia, Corsica and during the Italian campaign (1943–1944), when he was wounded. He worked as a photographer, in collaboration with ciné cameraman Raymond Méjat, and was editor of the newspaper of the combatants of the African Army. Upon Liberation he was on a team of the French Foreign Legion who founded ''Point de vue'', a publication of which he became editor-in-chief in 1946 then of ''

Parisien libéré Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

''. Within ''Point de vue-Images du monde'', from 1953 to 1977 he hosted the “Permanent Photo Show” in which he paid tribute to photographers and illustrators. Albert Plécy committed suicide by shooting himself on 1 May 1977 (aged 62) in Baux-de-Provence..

Gens d'images

Plécy and Paul Almásy created ''Gens d'images'' on 15 October 1954, then the

Niépce Prize The Niépce Prize has been awarded annually since 1955 to a professional photographer who has lived and worked in France for over 3 years and is younger than 50 years (previously 45 years) of age. It was introduced in honour of Joseph Nicéphore N ...

in 1955, then the Nadar Prize.

"Chambre Noire"

From 1964 to 1968, Plécy hosted, with

Michel Tournier Michel Tournier (; 19 December 1924 − 18 January 2016) was a French writer. He won awards such as the '' Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française'' in 1967 for '' Friday, or, The Other Island'' and the Prix Goncourt for '' The Erl-King'' ...

, a television program " Chambre noire", while continuing his activity as a journalist. For each episode a photographer was interviewed on their imagery; the series featured, amongst others,

Maurice Baquet Maurice Louis Baquet (26 May 1911 – 8 July 2005) was a French actor and cellist. He was born in Villefranche-sur-Saône and died in Noisy-le-Grand.Robert Doisneau Robert Doisneau (; 14 April 1912 – 1 April 1994) was a French photographer. From the 1930s, he photographed the streets of Paris. He was a champion of humanist photography and, with Henri Cartier-Bresson, a pioneer of photojournalism. D ...

Bill Brandt Bill Brandt (born Hermann Wilhelm Brandt ; 2 May 1904 – 20 December 1983)Paul DelanyBill Brandt: A Life was a British photographer and photojournalism, photojournalist. Born in Germany, Brandt moved to England, where he became known for his ...

Brassaï Brassaï (; pseudonym of Gyula Halász, ; 9 September 1899 – 8 July 1984) was a Hungarian–French photographer, sculptor, medalist, writer, and filmmaker who rose to international fame in France in the 20th century. He was one of the numerou ...

, Denis Brihat,

Édouard Boubat Édouard Boubat (; 13 September 1923 – 30 June 1999) was a French photojournalist and art photographer. Life and work Boubat was born in Montmartre, Paris. He studied typography and graphic arts at the École Estienne and worked for a printi ...

, Izis...

Les Journées internationales de photojournalisme

In 1959, he launched with Raymond Grosset and in conjunction with the association "People and Culture", Les Journées internationales de photojournalisme ('International Photojournalism Days') at the University Centre of Saint-Exupéry in Boulouris. Amongst the participants were

Jean Dieuzaide Jean Dieuzaide (20 June 1921 – 18 September 2003) was a French photographer. Early life and education Dieuzaide was born on 20 June 1921 in Grenade, Haute-Garonne, and at 13 was given a cardboard Coronet 6 × 9 camera. He attended ...

, Pierre Gassmann, and

. In 1960, the Journées took place again in Boulouris; in 1961 in San Pellegrino; then from 1962 in

Porquerolles Porquerolles (; ), also known as the Île de Porquerolles, is an island in the Îles d'Hyères, Var, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France. Its land area is and in 2004, its population has been about 200. Porquerolles, the largest and most west ...

, at the Mas du Langoustier. In 1974, the 14th and last Journées were held at Fort St. Agathe.

New aesthetics

In 1963, he created ''Esthétiques nouvelles'', an image consulting firm.

La Cathédrale d’Images

Plécy established the 'Cathedral of Images' in the white limestone quarries of

, in 1975; it was a novel and, for the time, advanced production of luminous frescoes of automatically changing imagery on the white stone walls from dozens of carousel projectors, with accompanying soundtrack, that enveloped the contours of the walls and the ceiling of the quarry, producing a 3-dimensional vision, with actors, and the viewers themselves, being illuminated and integrated into the vividly coloured imagery. It attracted international visitors. After Plécy died, on 1 May 1977, his second wife, Anne (née Carlier) continued her husband's work until her own death in 2002. The Baux de Provence municipal council, wishing to manage the (necessarily irregular) show themselves, terminated the lease and privatised it. After its closure on 21 September 2010 at the initiative of the municipality, it was renamed Carrières de Lumières in 2012, formalised on 19 January 2018 against the illegal termination of the original commercial lease. The current manifestation is an expanded, digitised production. The conception of the audiovisual show “cathedral of images” is discussed in Plécy's book ''Hommes d'Images'' (Actes Sud 1997).

Bibliography

* ''The elementary grammar of the image'', Paris, École Estienne, 1968 (1st ed. 1962). * ''The photo, art and language: The elementary grammar of the image'', Paris, Marabout, 1975 (1st ed. 1971) (revised edition of ''La grammaire élémentaire de l'image''). * Albert Plécy, ''Hommes d'images'', Actes Sud
1997
* Gérard Blanchard and Jean-Claude Macquet, 'Hommage à Albert Plécy', ''Communication et languages'', vol. 34, no 1, 1977, p. 122 * Claude Renaud, "Testimony of Claude Renaud on Albert Plécy, founder of Gens d´images", in "L'Histoire", Les Gens images, 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Plecy, Albert 1914 births 1977 deaths Theorists Visual arts theory French art historians Semioticians 1977 suicides Free French military personnel of World War II Suicides by firearm in France