Name Ronny Jaques Role Photographer | Died 2008, Copenhagen, Denmark Books Stolen moments | |
Ronny Jaques (1910–2008) was a British photographer from London.
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Early life
The son of a bookmaker who died when he was run over by a train in the London Underground. During World War I Ronny Jaques was sent to boarding school in a coastal town on the Thames. The school was then moved to Bedford, in the middle of England, to avoid air raids. Jaques stayed there until the end of the war. When Ronny was 9 years old, his mother closed his father's business and moved the family to Christie Lake in Canada.
In 1925, Jaques moved to New York City with his brother Louis. During that time, Ronny worked for Henry L. Dougherty, the founder of a gas company. In 1932 both brothers quit their jobs and went bicycling through Europe for two years. Jaques then enrolled at the Regent Street Polytechnic in London where he focused on learning about photography. He Stayed in the school for about 8 months. Then he went to Canada where he opened the Ronny Jaques Studio at 24 Grenville Street in Toronto. In 1941, he closed the studio to focus on his photography career in NYC.
Photography career
During the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s he worked as a photographer for magazines such as Harper's Bazaar, Gourmet, Holiday and Town and Country where he shot fashion, travel, food and lifestyle photography. During his free time, he took pictures at The Downbeat Club, a jazz club in New York, where he photographed celebrities such as Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins, and Nat King Cole.
After his death in September 2008, Ronny Jaques' photographs were published in the book Stolen Moments, by editor in chief of Town and Country, and close friend of Jaques, Pamela Fiori.
Stolen Moments consists of a collection of black and white portraits taken by Jaques. Some celebrities featured in the book include Marlon Brando, Bette Davis, Cary Grant, Billie Holiday, Leonard Bernstein, and George S. Kaufman, among others.
Unlike many contemporary photographers, Ronny Jaques was known to work alone and without any set-dressing.
By the 1990s Ronny was living in Copenhagen, Denmark, with Lise, his third wife, and their two children, Lulu, who was married with four children, and Jens-Louis. He died at the age of 98 in the summer of 2008.
Ronny Jaques' publications include: "Gourment's France" 1978, "Newfound" 1955, "The Island" 1955, "New Brunswick" 1956, "Greece and the Olympic Games" 1984