Eliane Laffont

Early life

Laffont was born in Burgundy, France, and raised in North Africa, where she attended school in Casablanca, Morocco. She completed her studies in Paris, where she received dual philosophy and political science degrees.

In 1965, Laffont, along with close friends Michèle Ray, Martine Libersart and Betty Gérard, completed a 30,000 mile endurance race from Tierra del Fuego to Alaska for Renault. They travelled from Ushuaia, through to Central America, from Las Vegas and Canada to Anchorage, where the journey ended. In 1966, Eliane moved to the United States and married photojournalist Jean-Pierre Laffont.

Gamma Press Images

In 1968 Eliane and Jean-Pierre Laffont opened the first U.S office of Gamma Press Images. Originally a French photo agency, Gamma rose to prominence in May 1968 because of the documentation of the uprising in Paris and the Vietnam War. The first client that Laffont had was with John Durniak, the director of photography from Time Magazine, who once said in Popular Photography magazine that "Eliane Laffont was the pioneer of "the French Connection" of the new wave of photo agencies".

Sygma Photo News Agency

Eliane and Jean-Pierre Laffont left Gamma and, in 1973, co-founded the breakaway agency Sygma Photo News Agency. Sygma rapidly expanded, with offices in New York, London and Paris, and had contracted over 500 photographers world-wide. Laffont initially served as general manager, and then as president of North America for three decades. Before Sygma was acquired in 1999, the agency had grown into the largest photo agency in the world. In 1998, Photographer's Forum Magazine announced that "Sygma is now the largest and most successful photo news agency (in America) and Eliane Laffont has become one of the... most respected businesswomen in the photography community."

In June 1999, it was announced that Bill Gates' Corbis Images had attained Sygma, resulting in Corbis Sygma. Laffont continued to oversee operations within Corbis Sygma's U.S. operations, and was appointed director of Corbis Sygma/ New York. Later, she was promoted to vice-president of editorial content.

In 2001, Laffont left Corbis Sygma.

Hachette Filipacchi Media

In 2000 Laffont joined Hachette Filipacchi Media, the New York subsidiary of Hachette Filipacchi Médias, one of the world's largest magazine publishers. Laffont became editorial director, supervising the photographic production in the U.S, and developing the photo division into three sections: photojournalism, photo illustration and photo reportage.

2000s

Laffont actively contributes to the photography community, and still serves as a Senior Consultant for Visa pour l'Image, the largest international festival of photojournalism, in Perpignan, France. Arnold Drapkin, the director at Palm Beach Photo describes Laffont as "a towering figure in photojournalism and documentary photography, she is responsible for discovering and nurturing more photographers, helping to keep their dreams alive (and pay the rent), and inspiring them with her brand of tough love, to do their best creative work."

Currently, Laffont and her husband reside in New York City. They have one daughter, Stephanie, and two granddaughters, Sparrow and Silvie.

Career Overview

Awards

Notable Positions