The death of photographer Laurence Labat, who immortalized many Quebec artistic personalities, raises a wave of sympathy on social networks.
The French-born photographer, who got her start in French magazines, including Paris Matchhad settled in Quebec in the 1990s. Portraits of artists, shows, events, record covers, magazine covers, Laurence Labat quickly became a must in the cultural milieu.
It was his family who announced his death on their Facebook page on Monday, following cancer. She was 60 years old.
Her friend, singer-songwriter Lulu Hugues, was still shaken by the news when we contacted her. “Laurence was my official photographer, but she was also my friend and my ally,” she confides to us. His death leaves a big void…”
Laurence Labat has indeed produced the last three album covers for Lulu Hugues, including that of her latest album Built Near the Waterreleased last fall.
“We met in 1999, and we immediately fell in love with each other,” continues Lulu Hugues. I liked it straight away. She was a generous, enthusiastic, open, intelligent woman, a force of nature, who was able to bring out the most beautiful of what I had inside…”
Lulu Hugues was able to see her friend for the last time last week. “I managed to make her laugh a little, I told her that I loved her. His eyes were still beautiful, an incredible light blue, with stars. »
Céline Dion, René Simard, Edith Butler, Bruno Pelletier, Louis-Jean Cormier, Cœur de Pirate, Louis-José Houde, Karine Vanasse, Patrick Huard, Emmanuel Bilodeau, among others, have all been sketched by Laurence Labat.
Host Geneviève Borne met Laurence Labat in the fall of 2000, during a photo shoot for the magazine Today’s Woman in which she poses (on the cover) with her mother.
“She was a luminous woman, she told us, who managed to light up the eyes of the people she photographed. She was so smiling and kind, everyone will tell you, she always managed to create a happy atmosphere when she worked. »
The editor of the KO Médias magazines, Sophie Banford, rubbed shoulders with the photographer for fifteen years, notably in the magazines Chatelaine And Wink. “She had a great sensitivity, especially towards women, she tells us. In fact, she had a feminist approach, insofar as she encouraged women to assume their femininity, and that is what she put forward.
On Laurence Labat’s page, several testimonies have been published. Among them, that of Marie-Michèle Desrosiers.
“Today the entire artistic family of Quebec is in mourning. Sad news of the departure of the great photographer Laurence Labat, with whom all of us, or almost, had the pleasure of working. Passionate, always smiling and invested in her art, Laurence has always been part of our lives. Bon voyage Laurence… Just last April, I was in his studio for a long photo session. »
A ceremony in his memory will be held on February 19 at the Haut Richelieu Funeral Complex.