Jacques Henri Lartigue (1894-1986) and André Kertész (1894-1985) were born in the same year and their lives crossed most of the last century. They might have met in Paris between the wars; instead they came to know each other only in 1973 in New York.

Neither took the most direct path to success. Their exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1963 and 1964 marked a decisive turn for both: the beginning of international recognition.