Captured Moments

BRIGITTE LACOMBE'S INTIMATE EYE

rigitte Lacombe has been at it long enough that her consistent, no-frills portraiture could be taken for granted. Mistake. As demonstrated by Lacombe: Anima/Persona (Steidldangin), her second book of photographs, due out in September, her images of actors, politicians, artists, writers, directors, and other figures of public interest only resonate more as the images age.

Lacombe, whose photos were first published in 1975, is no whambam-thank-you-ma'am kind of picture taker. When she can, she works as a writer might: observing and taking time to get to know her subjects, often photographing them over and over as the years pass. This committed, fly-on-the-wall approach has given Lacombe entree to movie sets, theater rehear sals, and people's lives—an intimacy above and beyond the typical gn ib-it-while-you-can photo shoot. Martin Scorsese and erg are just two of the film directors she has shadowed, n as men and as artists through the decades,

at Lacombe's portraits forgo any kind of pictorial fanfare makes he :r achievement all the more remarkable. Then again, whether takin g a snapshot or a more studied portrait, Lacombe is banking on th e oldest story in the book—what happens when people >st all of her subjects may have public identities, but her work is genuin lely personal.

INGRID SISCHY

SEE MORE STUNNING PHOTOGRAPHS FROM BRIGITTE LACOMBE'S NEW BOOK ON VF.COM.