In 1965, Laffont, along with close friends Michèle Ray, Martine Libersart and Betty Gérard, completed a 30,000 mile endurance race from Tierra del Fuego to Alaska for Renault.
Originally a French photo agency, Gamma rose to prominence in May 1968 because of the documentation of the uprising in Paris and the Vietnam War.
[7] In 1998, Photographer's Forum magazine announced that "Sygma is now the largest and most successful photo news agency (in America) and Eliane Laffont has become one of the ... most respected businesswomen in the photography community."
Laffont actively contributes to the photography community, and still serves as a Senior Consultant for Visa pour l'Image, the largest international festival of photojournalism, in Perpignan, France.
Arnold Drapkin, the director at Palm Beach Photo describes Laffont as "a towering figure in photojournalism and documentary photography, she is responsible for discovering and nurturing more photographers, helping to keep their dreams alive (and pay the rent), and inspiring them with her brand of tough love, to do their best creative work."