Laure Albin Guillot

Laure Albin Guillot (née Maffredi; 15 February 1879 – 22 February 1962) was a French photographer. In addition to portraits of Paris celebrities, she covered a wide variety of genres and had a number of high-ranking positions.

Early life Born Laure Maffredi in Paris, she attended the Lycée Molière in the 16th arrondissement. In 1897 she married Dr. Albin Guillot, a specialist in microscopy.

Career Working from her studio at her home on Rue du Ranelagh, she published her first fashion photographs in the French edition of Vogue in 1922. The same year, she won a gold medal in a contest sponsored by Revue Francaise de Photographie. The same year, she became president of the Union féminine des carrières libérales et commerciales, an organisation bent on supporting the interests of women in professional life. In 1932, she was appointed head of a number of key bodies, including the director of photographic archives for the Direction générale des Beaux-Arts, the first curator of the Cinémathèque nationale.

The first of her works combining photography with literature was published in 1936 when she illustrated Paul Valéry's Narcisse, publishing further works from 1940 to 1944 during the German occupation. In 1937, she helped to organise the exhibition Les femmes artistes d'Europe.

After the Second World War, Albin Guillot continued to work as a portraitist at her studio on the Boulevard du Séjour until she retired in 1956 to the Maison Nationale des Artistes in Nogent-sur-Marne.

Artistic style Laure Albin Guillot exhibited in the 1920s, adopting a classical approach or French style rather than the avant-garde trends of the day. But it was in the 1930s and 1940s that her work dominated the photographic scene. She covered a variety of genres, everything from portraits and nudes to landscapes, still lifes and, to a lesser extent, journalism. A master of technology, she made use of the very latest methods of image production, perfectly suited to the requirements of publication. Paul Valéry: Narcisse (1936) Paul Valéry: La Cantate du Narcisse (1941) Paul Valéry: Arbres (1943) Pierre Louÿs: Les Douze Chansons de Bilitis (1937) Henry de Montherlant: La Déesse Cypris (1946) Illustrations pour les Préludes de Claude Debussy (1948)

Exhibitions Laure Albin Guillot (1879–1962) l'enjeu classique, 26 February – 12 May 2013, Jeu de Paume, Paris Guillot's work was included in the 2021 exhibition Women in Abstraction at the Centre Pompidou.

Awards 1922: Médaille d'or (gold medal), Revue française de photographie.