Jean Gilletta is, first and foremost, a man, the most well-known landscape photographer of southeastern France. It is also a photographic publishing company founded in 1881 by Jean Gilletta, known as “Giletta frères éditeur.” It still exists and is among the oldest French publishing houses.
Over time, Jean Gilletta has become, as it were, a “brand” of the Riviera landscape, whether artistic, patrimonial, tourist, or commercial.
Somewhere between the itinerant artist of the Grand Tour, the hiker discovering mountains, and the “backpacker” traveling the roads, all the roads, Jean Gilletta spent his life in the landscape. He left behind thousands of photographs, creating, prior to our century, a regional and photographic Google Earth.
Keen to give his images the widest possible dissemination, Jean Gilletta did not limit himself to the traditional printing of his photographs; he chose the postcard format as soon as it was developed.
It was the postcard that made the Gilletta name famous worldwide, as well as the reproduction of his photos in tourist publications.
Through five main themes – Nice, the capital of resort tourism – Nissa la Bella – Over hills and dales – Under the azure along the coast – The news in images – this exhibition showcases the richness and evolution of the subjects depicted, the variety of angles chosen, the serious or humorous tone given to several photos.
The period considered begins at the end of the Second Empire and ends shortly before the Second World War. Thus, included are the photographs taken during Jean Gilletta’s apprenticeship years with W. de Bray and those taken by his nephew, Louis Gilletta, who succeeded him at the head of the company in 1926.
The geographical coverage of the photographs featured in the exhibition includes Nice and the Côte d’Azur, but also the valleys of the Alpes-Maritimes, Liguria, Provence, and Savoie.
The dive into time inherent in any retrospective of a work is accompanied here by a contemporary reinterpretation of certain photographs through enlargement, colorization, and digital reproduction on current media. These movements back and forth between old subjects and modern techniques have been a continual practice for Jean Gilletta and his family. This exhibition is part of the same approach.
Making available to everyone the images accumulated over the years, sharing the emotion, grandeur, beauty, or simplicity of a landscape was Jean Gilletta’s raison d’être, his passion for seeing. Following the example of this visual heritage he left us, this exhibition allows us to renew his generous endeavor and make it accessible to all.
