Who hasn't seen this amazing image? It hangs in every dentist's waiting room. It's French photographer Jean Guichard's stunning photo of France's La Jument Lighthouse in a December storm. Look closely, and you'll see a lighthousekeeper standing in the doorway.
Despite the roaring storm, Théodore Jean Malgorn in the lantern room heard the sound of a propeller engine. Curiosity brought him down to the base of the lighthouse. When he opened the door, he spotted a helicopter flying over the rough waters of the Iroise Sea. From the air, the photographer Jean Guichard was watching the insistent way the Atlantic waves struck the Lu Jument Lighthouse. With surprising intuition, he clicked his camera at just the right moment with the lighthousekeeper standing there as a giant wave engulfed the tower.
The snapshot leaves the viewer on tenterhooks. Looking at it, you wonder about the picture without knowing what befell the keeper. Perhaps because of the uncertainty that it carried with it, it won a 1990 World Press Photo award. The story of the photo does end happily. The lighthousekeeper, about to be engulfed by the wave, closed the door just in time. The damage was limited to a scare and some wet feet.
After nearly forty years of service, Théodore Jean Malgorn departed La Jument in 1991, leaving a lonely, automated lighthouse behind him. He continued to live on the island of Ouessant, glimpsing from its cliffs the imposing silhouette of the tower in the distance and recalling the moment when the famous wave lashed le phare des tempêtes.
Meet Théodore Jean Malgorn. For him, it was more than just a job — it was a true calling. As he said, "When you're young and working in lighthouses, you always go through hell — that’s certainly what I did at La Jument; those are incredibly tough lighthouses. Because you never know when you’ll be coming down — since the storms make it really rough — they call it the 'hell of the lighthouses'". When asked, "What stays in your heart from those thirty-seven years spent at the lighthouse?", he relents, "Seagulls singing, the sound of the waves — even during heavy storms — it really is magnificent. It's really a life that if I came back to earth again, I would live again."
You don't have to be able to speak French to be a lifehousekeeper, but it would help if you want to listen to Théodore Jean Malgorn. Look out for him next time you visit your dentist.
