Bloncourt was a Haitian photographer, painter and activist born in 1926 in the small town of Bainet in the Southeast section of Haiti. Gérald began painting in his youth, and in the mid-1940s - when he was only 17 - was one of the founders of the Haiti Art Center, which offered space for exhibition and training for local artists. The Center has now been pursuing this mission for 80 years.
Along with photography, he never stopped expressing his emotions through painting and poetry. In 1986, after 40 years of exile, he returned to his country Haiti, and until his death would travel back and forth between Paris and his native island. In 2013, during an exhibition of his work, he said: "I wanted to use my photos as a weapon to change the world". The little girl holding her doll in a shanty town on the outskirts of Paris - who was photographed as a child and whom he found 40 years later had become a teacher - is the focal point of one of his most unforgettable images.
Gérald Bloncourt died on October 29, 2018 at the age of 91. His legacy in the worlds of photography and painting remains a symbol of how art can be used to actively protest and push for change.
