There is no Jacques Legare. I feel dirty.

[jsrockit]

If you're dead and unknown, your photos are automatically better than someone who is still clicking around and breathing. Throw around a few names of famous friends, add a dash of mystery, and --like magic-- a new artist is born. A black-and-white print goes from worthless to $1500. Amazing.

If it was only that simple. For every person's work that becomes well known posthumously, there are probably 100,000 others that are simply forgotten.

 

[Spider67]

I like hoaxes like that one, which border on parody. No harm has been done it's an Inside joke for all who wer intersted in a certain Kind of photography.

 

[NY_Dan]

My apologies to all RFF members. There is no Jacques Legare. It's a hoax. I'm very ashamed. The photos are from my own negatives.

I've been wanting to do something like this ever since I first heard about the Vivian Maier case. Something sounded fishy from the start. If you're dead and unknown, your photos are automatically better than someone who is still clicking around and breathing. Throw around a few names of famous friends, add a dash of mystery, and --like magic-- a new artist is born. A black-and-white print goes from worthless to $1500. Amazing.

I invite all RFF members to participate in the Jacques Legare hoax. (Truth: I bought a used M2 from a guy in Canada, and it was nicely engraved with that name on it. I'm betting he was a dentist from Quebec who passed away, leaving a few Leicas behind.) Let's see if anyone in the outside world picks it up, and how far it goes. Only you will know.

Or invent your own dead artist. It's easy.

I owe special apologies to johannielscom, jesse1dog, and sevo. They thoughtfully contributed to the discussion, taking my post at face value. NY Dan, I suspect, knew it was a fake, and PMCC was hot on his tail.

Again, sorry for abusing your trust.

Oh you naughty boy! 🙂 I love everything about this -- good fun! As for VM, I appreciate her and her work and wish her last years could've been more comfortable. I suppose it's only human nature that we love a good story -- a gold bar is just a gold bar until one learns it came from a shipwreck with a tale worthy of Joseph Conrad. Thank you taking the time and effort to put together such a fun prank. ... I also liked the photos!

 

[sevo]

That is not a simple not-for-profit, that is a organization which the government allows gifts made to it, to be tax deductible.

So are all of mine. It is not really that hard, there are established standards for the required charta (like indiscriminately serving a purpose of public benefit for free), and as long as it really is non-profit (as in all-volunteer run and living entirely on donations), it is trivial to pass the tax check every year. Things get more difficult with "non-profit" organizations that pay substantial salaries to its management or serve purposes like operating a golf course for the very rich - but even these manage to pass hereabouts if they have the right lawyers...

 

[konicaman]

Funny *wiggling my fuzzy ears* - this really made my day - thank you "Jacques". 😀
Nice photos BTW...

 

[Lauffray]

Ha ! Nice one. I didn't quite like the pictures but I have to say I fell for it

 

[jesse1dog]

No apology needed as far as I am concerned - I liked the story and some of the photos too.
In this day and age I assume everybody has an agenda that I can sometimes guess, but generally I usually can't be bothered to even contemplate.
I think most guys who consider themselves 'better photographers' are fooling themselves, and I'll include myself in that category - the world is an illusion. Just look at the worlds in which our 'politicians' live, and we put them there!
Says it all, doesn't it?

One good thing, we have just had our first rain in weeks - perhaps my well wont dry up after all!

 

[CameraQuest]

My apologies to all RFF members. There is no Jacques Legare. It's a hoax. I'm very ashamed. The photos are from my own negatives.

I've been wanting to do something like this ever since I first heard about the Vivian Maier case. Something sounded fishy from the start. If you're dead and unknown, your photos are automatically better than someone who is still clicking around and breathing. Throw around a few names of famous friends, add a dash of mystery, and --like magic-- a new artist is born. A black-and-white print goes from worthless to $1500. Amazing.

I invite all RFF members to participate in the Jacques Legare hoax. (Truth: I bought a used M2 from a guy in Canada, and it was nicely engraved with that name on it. I'm betting he was a dentist from Quebec who passed away, leaving a few Leicas behind.) Let's see if anyone in the outside world picks it up, and how far it goes. Only you will know.

Or invent your own dead artist. It's easy.

I owe special apologies to johannielscom, jesse1dog, and sevo. They thoughtfully contributed to the discussion, taking my post at face value. NY Dan, I suspect, knew it was a fake, and PMCC was hot on his tail.

Again, sorry for abusing your trust.

Just change your name to Jacques Legare - you too can be a famous photog!

Stephen

 

[Sparrow]

... so that's it? Nat Tate has had his fifteen minutes now and we move on to the newer, lesser talents

 

[xayraa33]

Tabernac, I imagined that Jacques Legare looked like a taller Gaulish gaunt version of Black Jacques Shellacque.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKXOevtekJI

 

[lueej]

very nice photos, I wish I had seen this before the big reveal...definitely would have had me believing! great show.