Accidents will happen

How do you make a name for yourself in an over-subscribed profession like photography, where perfection is often just a minimum criterion for entry?

Well — as much as who you know, who and what you photograph — luck and accident seem to play a large part in it.

Simon Towler takes a look at the lucky strokes that have helped some photographers make their name.

Lartigue

“In 1962 Jacques Henri Lartigue, was travelling across America by Greyhound bus with his wife, Florette. With him he carried two albums of photographs that Florette had been repairing, to while-away the journey. In a chance encounter with a photographic agent at the end of the trip, these family snaps he’d taken as a child were uncovered. For Lartigue, this changed everything. Within a year he had his first solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It captivated the world, and he was hailed a genius of 20th Century photography.”

J.H. Lartigue: The Boy Who Never Grew Up: documentary video.