In twenty years, Thérèse Le Prat photographed the actors in more than two hundred and fifty classical or modern plays, including Louis Jouvet, Alain Cuny, Maria Casarès, Gérard Philipe, Jean-Louis Barrault and Jean Vilar. Using photographic realism to make the most of the combinations offered by changes of costume, make-up and lighting, she created a highly personal body of work whose chief subject of inspiration is the mystery of the human face.
Born in Rouen on 27 March 1906, died in Rouen on 30 November 1992. Collaborator at the weekly L'Illustration from 1927 to 1940, he joined Free France in 1941 and from 1944 onwards became head of the photographic department of the Colonial Office of the Provisional Government of the Republic. After the Liberation, he became director of the photographic services of the regional daily newspaper Paris-Normandie. In 1949, he and his wife opened Photo Ellebé, a professional studio on Place Beauvoisine.