Portraits by Michel Delaborde

Michel Delaborde (1935-2009) had a wide-ranging career as a photographer. I find his portraits extraordinary, and will post my favourites here.

Michel Delaborde, Tournage d’une interview de Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, October 1978

Another wonderful portrait of Maria Helena Vieira da Silva by Michel Delaborde

Michel Delaborde, Jane Birkin and Agnès Varda on the set of Kung Fu Master, 1987

Another shot by Michel Delaborde from the set of Agnès Varda's Kung Fu Master. In this shot Serge Gainsbourg seems to be visitor on the set.

Pierre Boulez by Michel Delaborde, January 1979

Brassaï by Michel Delaborde, 1980

Raymond Devos by Michel Delaborde, 1979

Peter Brook by Michel Delaborde, 1979

Pierre Soulages by Michel Delaborde, 1980

Eugène Ionesco by Michel Delaborde, 1979

Roland Barthes photographed by Michel Delaborde at his home on rue Servandoni, February 5, 1980. Twenty days later, Barthes was knocked down by a laundry van while walking home from a lunch with François Mitterand. He died a month later.

This is spooky. The contact sheet (planche contact in French) from Michel Delaborde's photoshoot with Roland Barthes, twenty days before his fatal accident. He just fades away...