Eliane Laffont

Eliane Laffont serves Hachette Filipacchi Medias as editorial director, supervising the photographic production of the group in the US, as well as developing the photography division around 3 sectors: photojournalism, photo illustration and photo reportage.

One of the industry's most venerated veterans, Laffont opened the US office of Gamma Press Images in collaboration with her husband Jean-Pierre Laffont in 1968. In 1973, they co-funded the breakaway Sygma Photo News Agency where Eliane served as general manager of the North American operation. After a two-year hiatus as Director of photography of LOOK magazine, she returned to her position as president of Sygma US in 1980 to 1999. Under her leadership, Sygma blossomed into the world's largest photo news agency.