Jean-Louis Dumas: Photographer

Jean-Louis Dumas always carries two things: a small red notebook and an old Leica. He has taken photographs all his life--mostly black-and-white--cataloguing significant moments and trivial asides on his extensive travels with work, family and friends. Dumas works in that finest of photographic traditions, the sophisticated nonprofessional. However, as the Creative Director of Hermès for 30 years, his professional milieu and his friendships with masters of the medium like Edouard Boubat have instilled in his photography an elegant and discreet sensibility. This collection brings together a life's work and reflects a longtime love affair with photography.
Jean-Louis Dumas, born in 1938, son of one of the four daughters of Emile Hermès, entered the reputed Maison Hermès in 1964. He started as a salesman and went on to become the Chairman and Creative Director in 1978, boosting annual sales ninefold to $460 million and opening more than 80 new shops before his retirement in 2006.