The humanist photography : the resurgence of a society captured in black and white
Humanistic photography appears in France, particularly in Paris and its suburbs in the 1930s. Photographers leave their studio and their shop for, growing demand, capture urban spaces. Magazines and daily regional press, in full resurrection and expansion after the Second World War, commissioned reports in various fields. Independents (Marcel Bovis, Jean Lattes or Lucien Lorelle), grouped together in an agency (Illustration Agency for the press — (fr:) Agence d’illustration pour la presse (AGIP), Rapho, Alliance Photo and the famous Magnum in New York, which contributes to disseminate “beautiful images from France” Paris, picturesque, romantic and bright) or employees in magazines (Izis for Paris-Match, Edouard Boubat for Réalités or Jean-Louis Swiners for Terre d’Images), the humanist photographers are also “reporters-illustrators “, singular denomination qualifying their role which is not to document news or events, but to testify by the image of the activities and centers of interest of the men is woman of the post-war France, what they do with a poetic realism marveled by the charm of banality.
They were led to cover the Liberation or the damage caused by years of conflict, to respond to requests from institutions such as the Commissariat général du tourisme (Tourism institution) and Documentation Française who needed images for promotional posters, calendars, educational and didactic materials presenting the country’s geography and economy.
They engaged themselves ideologically and politically, in communism for example, for peace, while the Cold War was already taking shape, for solidarity in order to challenge the problems of poor housing and misery in working-class neighborhoods. to communicate the actions carried out by the charity associations. Their images of the world of work, between modernization and progress, between strikes and demands, were published in Regards, l’Almanach de l’Humanité and some of trade unions’s newsletters. They captured moving urbanization (with specific programs in the 1950s), and expressed hope a brighter future. In this post-war France, ruined, divided, but liberated, their cliches contributed to the creation of an iconography, an image of the “permanent and free spectacle of daily life” 1, as Doisneau pointed out the walks in the big city, the taste for the cobbled streets, the typical characters, the idealization of rurality and the search for moments of grace.
« It’s the humanity that interests me, it’s the pulp »- claims Henri Cartier-Bresson. 2
The principle is simple: celebrate the man in his daily life, the people, all categories and ages, workers and families, rich and modest, the innocent childhoods, the anonymous, the heroically tender figures, and the spaces of freedom and conviviality where they move. The theater of the world is transcendent of poetry. Ronis says that “the resumption of activity after the Liberation was quite fascinating. People were craving for images, and for a few years, the photograph for the printed page went through a period of great fertility. Things were not simple because we lacked everything. 3” Despite the numerous orders for press titles, it was not always easy for photographers. Doisneau summarizes the situation: “Commissioned work, which is considered a shameful activity, allows material survival. […] It requires an expenditure of energy, of invention and, in order not to give in to resignation or to greed, we must be careful to avoid the pitfalls of specialization and always keep an oblique glance that engages to steal, when opportunities arise, a little time paid by different employers. Thus the modest practitioner, playing in secret to the dilettante, will be rewarded with a reputation of loiterer.”
The status of photographer remained precarious particularly in the years 1945–1950 due to the lack of material in particular. A majority of photographers also work for fashion, now shooting away from studios, highlighting this thought of Colette Chanel: “There is no fashion if she does not go down the street.”
Several photographers also work for advertising, associative, touristic to promote France, corporate to promote consumption with for example cars (whose market is growing). Companies use photographers to take pictures of their factories and industries, so for example car’s company Renault entrusts for this work Doisneau. The news of the world is increasingly shared through news magazines, but some countries are poorly represented: the magazine Réalités, created in 1946 and directed by Alfred Max, favors the discovery of distant and unknown lands and their inhabitants. The idea is to reveal life in the big cities as in the villages, geography of the world. His regular photographers are Jean-Philippe Charbonnier and Édouard Boubat, but there are also external collaborators, who are allowed to choose their subject and treat it as they wish. Doisneau will produce for the magazine “Portrait of an average Frenchman”, Cartier-Bresson, Charbonnier, Bischof and Boubat tell India, Japan, Egypt … These “Correspondant(s) of peace”, expression of poeter Prévert to qualify Boubat, are also interested in the current diplomatic ambitions, the creation of international institutions for peace and development (the UN, UNESCO).
The press is made of editorial choices as to content, these are imbued with a nostalgia for a picturesque Paris and perhaps a bit idealized. Other themes exist: social conflict, demands, but also specific topics about painting, art … For the subjects that were important to them, the photographers undertook personal or collective editorial projects. Publishing was a way to enhance their work at a time when photography exhibitions were rare. On the other hand, writers and photographers collaborate : Aragon and Henri Cartier-Bresson Ce soir (Tonight), Jacques Prévert and Izis for Grand Bal du Printemps, René-Jacques and Mac Orlan for Les fêtes foraines (The carnivals), Blaise Cendrars and Robert Doisneau for La Banlieue de Paris, Bobin and Boubat for (Donne moi quelque chose qui ne meure pas) Give me something that does not die. Little by little, with the advent of television, the major illustrated periodicals and its photographers lose a little of their place on the scene of the report. They wille win it then in the field of art, more specifically thanks to the dedicated event (International Meeting for photography) Rencontres internationales de la photographie in Arles (France), created en 1970, which considers photographers as authors.
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notes
1–3. La photographie humaniste, 1945–1968 autour d ’Izis, Boubat, Brassaï, Doisneau, Ronis… directed by Laure Beaumont Maillet, Françoise Denoyelle and Dominique Versavel, Paris, Éditions de la Bibliothèque Nationale de France, 2006
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