Death of Magali Jauffret, critic and photography passer in humanity

Death magali jauffret, critic photography

She fought until the end, with exemplary courage. Magali Jauffret died on Friday June 20, in Paris, from cancer that she fought for 26 years in Paris. On June 9. she published her latest article in our columns, devoted to the exhibition “How the Nazis photographed their crimes”, at the Shoah Memorial.

In recent months, she wrote less, almost came to the newspaper but continued to share her discoveries, her enthusiasms, whether it was photography, of which she was one of the best specialists in the French press, or contemporary art.

In his writing as in her carefully matched shades, Magali was elegant, precise, with a touch of fantasy. She had the chic to find bags and necklaces bought three times nothing on the Paris or Sète markets. The city where, four years ago, she acquired a house to be near death magali jauffret, critic photography the Mediterranean she loved so much. “A bet on incredible life”estimates her friend Françoise Morin. founder of the showers La Galerie, “She never complained, she was of extraordinary generosity, great fidelity, great curiosity for young artists. »»

“A popular criticism in the common sense of the word”

Criticism with a sharp look. much appreciated by the photographers whose work she followed, Magali was a large passer, capable of taking the reader to all the territories of creation, without ever excluding him. “It was a popular criticism, in the good sense of the word. She was readable for everyone. She analyzed the work, dissected it, but did not look for quotes or references. She did not listen to herself writing and favored sincerity ”testifies to photographer Bernard Plossu. Pioneer at a time when photography was not yet a matter of money. she was one of the first to devote full death magali jauffret, critic photography pages to her.

“She had an always interesting point of view and a very wide spectrum, far from the chapels. She accompanied my whole generation of photojournalists »confirms Guillaume Herbaut to whom Magali devoted many articles including a moving portrait at the start of the war in Ukraine. Each year, it covered the Arles meetings, visa for the image. She wrote on large museums as on small galleries. without worrying about hierarchies and renown, and had joined the Fnac purchasing commission responsible for constituting the collection of photos of the State.

The list of those she has supported in her articles, her texts for exhibition catalogs or books is long and testifies to the eclecticism of her tastes: Françoise Huguier, Smith, Bertrand Meunier, Gilbert Garcin, Antoine d’Agata, Sarah Moon with whom she has established a relationship following an article on her work: “I called him and I said to him:” death magali jauffret, critic photography You are a voice in the crowd that touched me “. We were not intimate but I loved his gaze, his integrity, his bias honest. »»

She had devoted her latest important preface to Dolorès Marat, awarded last October by the Robert Delpire Book Prize. “If she loved the photos we presented, she was frank, just, very strong and true. If she didn’t like it, she didn’t say harm. One day, when I lived in a good room without heating or toilet, she came to my house. When she saw where I lived, she dismented so that I could have a place at the International City of the Arts. She saved me ”recalls the photographer.

In a long dress in Billancourt

Born in 1949. Magali is the only daughter of Mireille and Jean-Marie Jauffret, communist activists in Cannes. She is entering humanity In 1975, covered foreign policy and then death magali jauffret, critic photography social struggles. “We were 4 girls in the section. For ten years, the struggles were followed against deindustrialisation. The first time Magali went to Billancourt (in a long dress). the secretary of the CGT union called Laurent Salini, head of the service, to protest: metallurgy was not a matter of women. Laurent put himself in black anger. Then we went to Billancourt one after the other ”recalls our sister Maïté Pinero.

HAS humanityMagali then covers parliamentary debates. holds the legal chronicle, integrates the editorial staff and directs the company service for a time. It is a little by chance that she begins to write on photography. While a mood page has been entrusted to her, she is looking for visuals to illustrate it. She runs agencies, galleries, schools. The photographers take place the word. she receives invitations for exhibitions.

In a text sent two weeks before her death, she recounts death magali jauffret, critic photography the birth of a passion, which has become her daily life: “I did not realize, at the time, how much my very diverse background, of great richness, accumulated in other sections, added to the fact that I was the daughter of a worker, that I was also raised by” the collective intellectual “that was the after-war PCF, was going to bring me a little something extra to writing on the photo, therefore on the representation of reality. I cannot define it myself, but I am often told about it … a certain way of contextualizing things, I believe. »»

For a year, she participated in the adventure of To see a monthly on glossy paper and without advertising. To describe the photograph she loved. she said: “It is a somewhat existentialist photo, in the sense that it gives, to trigger, a real intensification of the feeling of existing and which death magali jauffret, critic photography favors human without being a humanist photo. »» In recent years. she observed the profound changes in the sector, the consequences of the transition to digital technology, the “Bouillonment of creative and scalable scriptures”.

She had also started singing, with the international choir of women in Paris, led by her friend Dale Wardlaw. She loved life, the kitchen and the beautiful objects assembled in her apartment with the appearance of a cabinet of curiosity. His was intact.