Michelle Vignes
(b. 1926)
French-born photographer Michelle Vignes has photographed major social movements of the past half-century's American history. Recording important events of political and cultural change she captured Native Americans' 1969-1971 occupation of Alcatraz Island, the American Indian Movement's 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee, Vietnam War protesters burning draft cards, Black Panthers, daily life in Mexican pueblos, Oakland's vibrant blues scene in the 1980s, and gospel singers at the Holy Ghost Deliverance Temple in Berkeley. Vignes' acclaimed black-and-white photographs have appeared in publications around the world, including Time, Life, Vogue, and Newsweek.
Michelle Vignes always had a great sensitivity to her subjects and found it vital to her art to spend a lot of time – sometimes years – with them. Her work always has a sense of social justice informed by her years of work at Magnum Photos, the legendary photo agency where she worked as a picture editor with Henri Cartier-Bresson. She later became a picture editor at the Paris headquarters of the United Nation's Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and since 1966 she has lived in San Francisco.
Vignes has received numerous awards, including the Chevalier des Arts des Lettres by France's Minister of Culture and the Oakland Museum's Dorothea Lange Award for distinguished work by a woman photographer. In 2003 Michelle Vigne's archives were acquired by UC Berkeley's Bancroft Library.
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