homage à Maurice Baquet & Robert Doisneau

I first saw pictures of the cellist Maurice Baquet (1911-2005) before I knew who he was; iconic, now ubiquitous, black and white photos of a cellist around Paris and the skyline of New York. 

​

Hundreds of lesser known portraits exist of him, all full of humour and character - the result of a life long friendship with the photographer Robert Doisneau. The two were at the very heart of the mid century Paris art scene, holding regular long meals with a variety of other artists including Prévert, Piaf and Picasso. The more I read about him, the more inspiring he is as a character, and as a musician. Perhaps the fact he was so undefinable (first in Paris Conservatoire, Olympic cross country skier, stand up comic, cello teacher and Hollywood actor) has kept him from being better known. ​​

​

His rich life seems to have been led exclusively by humour and collaboration with friends. A life in music led by these priorities inspires me -  I wanted to start a project as a reminder of this.

​

In 1981 Baquet and Doisneau published a book together “ballade pour violoncelle et chambre noir” - a series of humorous biographic portraits of Baquet with his cello. I am lucky that my partner Emma Werner is a brilliant photographer. Together we are producing a set of portraits, all taken with film and printed in our South London dark room. Yet to be assembled into anything complete, but the pile is slowly building in size…

​