In September 1966, the legendary American photojournalist Steve Schapiro captured a series of iconic, candid portraits of the French singer and style icon Françoise Hardy in Venice, Italy. At the time, Hardy was in Venice for the film festival, specifically to promote the film Grand Prix, directed by John Frankenheimer, in which she starred alongside Yves Montand. At just 22 years old, she was at the height of her “yé-yé” fame, embodying the effortless “French Girl” aesthetic that fascinated international photographers like Schapiro.
Unlike the highly staged studio portraits common at the time, Schapiro (known for his work on The Godfather and with David Bowie) used a photojournalistic approach. He captured Hardy as a real person navigating a tourist city, sometimes looking pensive, other times seemingly unaware of the camera.
These images helped solidify Hardy’s image as an intellectual and somewhat reluctant star. In her memoirs, Hardy often mentioned her discomfort with the “celebrity” machine; Schapiro’s photos are often cited as the ones that best captured that quiet, slightly detached essence of her personality during her most famous year.
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