Niepce, Janine (1921—)

French photographer. Born in Meudon, France, in 1921; degree in art and archaeology, Sorbonne, 1945.

A distant relative of pioneering French photographer Nicéphore Niepce, Janine Niepce was a trailblazer in her own right, becoming one of France's first women photojournalists. Born in 1921 into a family of vineyard owners in Meudon, France, Niepce graduated from the Sorbonne in 1945, then went to work for the bureau of tourism. In 1950, she opened Prix Niepce (of which she served as president), and in 1955 she joined Rapho, a photo agency in Paris. From 1960 to 1968, she participated in five traveling exhibitions organized by the minister of foreign affairs. She photographed in India (1963), Brazil (1968), and Cambodia and Japan (1970), and contributed photographs to a book on Simone de Beauvoir (1978). From 1981 to 1985, she created photographic documentaries on men and women and new technology.

Niepce had two solo exhibitions: at the Musée Nicéphore Niepce, Chalon-sur-Saône, France (1979) and at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (1983). The latter was titled "Des Femmes et des métiers non traditionnels." She was honored as a chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et Lettres in 1981 and received the Légion d'Honneur in 1985. In 1992, a retrospective of her work, "Janine Niepce, France 1947–1992," was mounted at the Espace Electra in Paris.

sources:

Rosenblum, Naomi. A History of Women Photographers. NY: Abbeville Press, 1994.