Leo Touchet portrait
Photo by Elizabeth Burk

Books            Publications            Exhibitions            Collections

My earliest memory of photography was at the age of six in my hometown of Abbeville, Louisiana when an uncle returned from World War II with boxes of photographs he had taken, and I have since wanted to travel. While in high school, I was selected to be the high school photographer. My equipment then was an old 4x5 Crown Graphic Camera with screw in flash bulbs.

After high school and a stint in the Army, I enrolled in Architecture school at the University of Southwest Louisiana (now the University of Louisiana Lafayette). There I was introduced to composition, form, light and perspective. My photography has since used all of these elements. Most of my photos are full-frame images, cropped in the camera.

I later worked in Cleveland and New York as a draftsman and later as an industrial designer. Eventually I became bored with working in an office on a drawing board. In July 1965, on a visit to the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), I was captivated by the photos of Henri Cartier-Bresson. The next day, I bought a used Leica M2 camera and began photographing on the streets of New York.

The photography archives at MOMA were open to the public and most of my photography education resulted from my many hours studying photos of Cartier-Bresson, Paul Strand, Eugene Smith, Edward Steichen, Gordon Parks and many other photographers in the collection. Later that year, I bought a ticket to Vietnam to become a photographer.

Over the last 50 years, I've worked for numerous national and international publications, traveling to over fifty countries around the world. Following are some of the places my photographs have been:

Leo Touchet 



BOOKS

REJOICE WHEN YOU DIE - The New Orleans Jazz Funerals (LSU Press 1998)
PEOPLE AMONG US - Photography by Leo Touchet (Photo Circle Press (2018)
AT THE RACES - Photography by Leo Touchet (Photo Circle Press (2018)
CHASING SHADOWS - Desert Sand Dunes (Photo Circle Press (2018)
FLOWERS - In Black & White (Photo Circle Press (2018)
CHILDREN AMONG US - Photography by Leo Touchet (Photo Circle Press (2019)
REJOICE WHEN YOU DIE - The New Orleans Jazz Funerals (Exhibit Catalog - Photo Circle Press 2023)

OTHER BOOK IN THE WORKS

NEW YORK CITY - 1965 to 1984
Forty to sixty images from the streetsss of New York. Being edited by
Coco Conroy, Director of the Jackson Fine Art Gallery in Atlanta.
Hopefully to be published by September.

PRINTS CATALOG - VOLUME 1
A collection of several hundred published Black & White Photos to Date.
This catalog will be published in July 2023.

Other books/monagraphs are planned for the future, including:
ASIA - KHYMER RUINS OF CAMBODIA - EUROPE
LATIN AMERICA - NORTH AMERCA
(Outside of Lousiana)

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COLLECTIONS

Sir Elton John Photography Collection
New Orleans Museum of Art
Museum of Fine Arts (Houston)
Bibliotheque Nationale (France)
Everson Museum of Art (Syracuse)
Hofstra University Museum (Hempstead, New York)
Amistad Research Center (Tulane Univerity)
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (New York Public Library)
Albin O. Kuhn Library (University of Maryland Baltimore County)
Chase Manhattan Collection (New York)
United States National Park Service

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PUBLICATIONS

Life Magazine   <>   Time Magazine
Fortune Magazine   <>   Newsweek Magazine
U.S. News & World Report    <>   Popular Photography
Natural History Magazine    <>   Country Journal
The New York Times    <>    The Washington Post
Boston Globe    <>    Oxford American Magazine
Medical World News    <>    The Southern Quarterly
American Visions    <>    Southern Living
America Illustrated    <>    Der Stern (Germany)
Panorama Magazine (Italy)

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EXHIBITS & ONE MAN SHOWS

Acadiana Center for the Arts (Louisiana)
Arizona State University
Arkansas Art Center Little Rock
Bibliotheque Nationale (Paris, France)
Bradford College (Massachusetts)
Brooks Memorial (Memphis)
Columbus Musuem (Georgia)
Everson Museum (Syracuse)
Fotofest '92 (Houston)
Georgia Southern University
Hofstra University (New York)
Louisiana State University
Miami Art Center (Florida)
Mint Museum (North Carolina)
Mississippi Southern University
Mississippi Valley State University
New Orleans Public Library
Oklahoma Art Center
Public Theater (New York City)
Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto)
Texas Women's University
University of Houston
University of Louisiana Lafayette
University of Oklahoma
University of Texas
University of West Florida Pensacola

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GROUP EXHIBITS

PHOTOGRAPHY USA 1976
United States Bicentennial Exhibit to the
Soviet Union & Eastern Europe

IMAGES OF MISSISSIPPI
Lauren Rogers Museum - Laurel, Mississippi

REGARDS et MEMOIRES - ARLES 2008
Four separate exhibits including public street banners
during the 39th Annual Photo Expo in Arles, France

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