Nationality American Name Lionel Delevingne | Role Author | |
Occupation Author, speaker, photojournalist Known for Photography of social movements | ||
Lionel Delevingne (born France) is an author, journalist, and photojournalist who has lived in the United States since 1975. According to Véronique Prévost of Figaro/Journal Français, "Delevingne is beholden to the lineage of great picture journalists, and his talent, if not his inspiration, makes you think of the master of the genre, Cartier-Bresson."
Contents
- Early life
- 1970s Environmental photos
- 1980s 2000s
- 2012 14 Drylands and To the Village Square
- Grants and awards
- Presentations lectures
- Collections solo exhibitions
- References
Delevingne is particularly known for his photographs of the anti-nuclear power/safe energy movement, chronicling the Seabrook nuclear power plant occupations in the 1970s, as well as Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima. He has won a number of photography awards, and his work has been featured on covers including New Age, Mother Jones, Washington Post Magazine, and Irish Times. Many of his photos have been published in books about the environment and the safe energy movement, and has co-authored several books. In 2014 he authored the book To the Village Square: From Montague to Fukushima, 1975-2014 on Nouveau Monde Press in collaboration with Prospecta Press.
Early life
Lionel Delevingne was born and raised in France. He studied education at Ecole Normale d'instituteurs d'Auteuil (ENI Paris), before moving permanently to the United States in 1975. He founded the publishing company Delevingne & Associates in 1980.
1970s: Environmental photos
After settling in Northampton, Massachusetts, and began working as a writer/photographer for publications such as the Valley Advocate, In These Times
He became particularly known for his documentary photographs of the anti-nuclear power/safe energy movement. He provided extensive coverage of the Clamshell Alliance occupations of the Seabrook nuclear power plant site in the 1970s, and also chronicled the aftermath of destruction and protest following major accidents at Three Mile Island in the United States, Chernobyl, Ukraine, and Fukushima, Japan. He published his photos both internationally and in the United States, including in Le Sauvage, one of the first ecological magazines in France.
Many of his photos have been published in books about the safe energy movement, including No Nukes by Anna Gyorgy (South End Press, 1979), and in the 2014 book To The Village Square. A photo essay of his work on Chernobyl appeared on the website of Mother Jones in 2009. According to Veronique Prevost of Figaro/Journal Francais, "Delevingne is beholden to the lineage of great picture journalists, and his talent, if not his inspiration, makes you think of the master of the genre, Cartier-Bresson."
1980s-2000s
A regular contributor to the New York Times travel section among others, Delevingne travelled extensively beyond his New England home to locations such as Greenland, Australia and the Amazon, as well as numerous European countries. He went on to co-author several books. The first was Northampton: Reflections on Paradise in 1988, followed shortly after by Franco-American Viewpoints.
2012-14: Drylands and To the Village Square
In 2012 he and Steve Turner co-authored the Drylands, a Rural American Saga, published by Nebraska University Press. In 2014 he authored the book To the Village Square: From Montague to Fukushima, 1975-2014 on Nouveau Monde Press. Mark Kramer, author and the former founding director of the Nieman Program's class on Narrative Journalism at Harvard, called the book "exquisite," stating "To open it is to participate, comprehend and appreciate the extensive, heroic, multi-decade struggle against global damage by nuclear power plants. It celebrates the many concerned and sensible citizens who have built successful, continuing and urgent movements against the high-handed and short-sighted private developers of these risky plants."
Grants and awards
Throughout his career Delevingne has received a number of grants, notably from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development (France) from the French Minister of Culture, as well as the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy. He has also won achievement awards from the Council for the Advancement (CASE) and Support of Education and Art Direction Magazine.
Presentations, lectures
The following is an incomplete list of presentations and lectures by Delevingne, as well as location:
Collections, solo exhibitions
His work is in the permanent collections of notable institutions including Fnac Galleries in Paris, France, Musee Nicephore Niepce in Chalon sur Saône , SUNY Arts Center in Albany, New York, the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, Lowell City Library in Lowell, Massachusetts, the Smith College Art Museum and Forbes Library in Northampton, Massachusetts. The Dubois Library Special Collections at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst has an extensive archive of his photographs.
The following is an incomplete list of Delevingne's solo exhibitions, along with where the exhibitions took place: