Being the first French photographer to be elected in 2007 to the Académie des Beaux-Arts is no mean feat.
In the early 1950s, encouraged by Picasso and Cocteau, Lucien Clergue's art was influenced by the violence of light and the great Mediterranean myths. This documentary shows the development of this new aesthetic, between Clergue's fascination with death, his ''Charognes'' (portraits of washed up carrion), the Camargue region, rendered desolate by ice and drought, and the cult of bull fighting and the celebration of his love for life, from the world of gypsies to the union of the female body and the sea.
This film, ''Clic Clac Clergue'', follows him in his work as a photographer and a militant for the creation of the first photo collection at the Musée Réattu and in 1969 the ''Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie'', now famous, making Arles, his hometown, the world capital of photography.
Several stories will illustrate this portrait including those of Roman Polanski, Agnès Varda, Michel Tournier, Christian Lacroix, Christian Caujolle...