For Nearly Eight Decades, the Traverso Family Has Captured Cannes’ Cinematic Icons

As the Cannes Film Festival marks its 78th year, one family has been a constant presence behind the camera throughout its entire history.

Gilles Traverso, now 67, represents the third generation of photographers in his family to document the festival, capturing images of renowned directors, actors, and other film luminaries who gather annually in the French Riviera city.

This upcoming festival will be Gilles’s 49th time covering the event. Since he began working alongside his father, Henri, in 1977, Gilles has witnessed the festival’s evolution amid the rise of digital photography, an influx of media, and a growing distance between celebrities and the public.

Reflecting on the changes, Gilles remarked, “The Cannes Film Festival mirrors the era we live in in an amplified way. But I dislike the notion that it was better in the past. It wasn’t better—just different.”

The Traverso family originally hails from Italy’s Piedmont region and relocated to Cannes in the mid-1800s. In 1919, Auguste Traverso, then in his twenties, opened a photography studio just as Cannes was transforming from a small fishing village into an elite holiday destination.