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Gaston Paris (photographer)

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For the French medieval scholar and writer, see Gaston Paris.

Gaston Paris (1903–1964) was a frequently published autodidactic photographer and journalist, notably for the magazine Vu.

Early life

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Born in Paris, 1903 (or 1905 according to some sources),[1] from about 1908 he was in foster care with a family in Alençon, before his military service in the Ruhr. Little is known about his personal life.[2]

Career

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From 1929, aged 26, he published articles on films in Cinémagazine, then photographed for Art et Médecine (from 1931)[3] and reported for the theatrical review La Rampe (1932–1933), then worked alongside Roger Schall, Jean Morel, Louis Caillaud, Olga Solarics (Studio Manasse), and Brassaï for Paris Magazine, a magazine of erotica. Such experience led him to be appointed under contract on July 1, 1933 (renewed in 1936) as the only salaried photographer for the magazine Vu, for which he made more than 1,300 photos. His work was more widely recognized in 1936 with his participation in the International Exhibition of Contemporary Photography in Paris.[4] Through the thirties, at different times he had studios in the 2nd arrondissement at 27, boulevard des Italiens and 6 rue d'Uzès, both a short walk to the sites of his theatrical pictures; the Folies Bergère, Paris Opera, and the Casino de Paris, where he photographed music hall artists including Maurice Chevalier, whom he also showed informally strolling with the children of Belleville, and amongst the crowds of other 'Paris Zones'.[5]

He mentored Willy Rizzo, 25 years his younger, also a frequent photographer of celebrities and film stars.[6] In the course of his reportage Paris himself photographed many, including French artists Moïse Kisling, André Dignimont,[7] Yves Brayer, and engraver Albert Decaris; French actors Max Dearly, Josette Day, Colette Darfeuil, Brigitte Bardot, Harry Baur. Blanchette Brunoy, Geneviève Cluny, France Delahalle, Ginette Leclerc, Christine Carère, Véra Norman, Anne Doat, Jean Chevrier, Pierrette Bruno and Swiss actor Michel Simon; singers Edith Piaf, André Claveau, Henri Salvador and Egyptian-born Reda Cairo; variety artists Charpini and Brancato; directors Henri-Georges Clouzot, Christian-Jaque and Christian Matras, students of Alberte Aveline's class at the Paris Opera ballet school; writers Pierre Mac Orlan and Georges Simenon; and Jean Cocteau and Jean Marais in Les Parents terribles; as well as politicians and military officers. By arrangement with Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris, Roger-Viollet Agency holds those portraits amongst 15,000 of Gaston Paris' other negatives[8]

Paris joined the group of photographers Le Rectangle in 1937,[9] and stopped working for VU in 1938. Until 1940 and the German Occupation he worked for Paris Match. In 1940, he worked as a freelancer, like other French photographers, for the magazine La Semaine, controlled by the Vichy authorities. His 1944 photographs of the Liberation[10] were featured in Jacques de Lacretelle's book Liberation of Paris, 1945,[11][12] and he visited Germany 1945–1946 with the French occupation troops to investigate the destruction of the country. His imagery appeared intermittently in Nuit et Jour (1946-1947) and in 1948 he photographed at the Fresnes prison to illustrate Levée d'énuro, by Georges Lupo.[13] He was photographer for Détective magazine from the late 1930s to the 1950s.[14][15]

Late career

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In his, and the century's, fifties Paris continued to work, undertaking a wide variety of commissions for film stills, celebrity portraits and photo-novels. He died in Paris in 1964.

Exhibitions

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  • 1936: International Exhibition of Contemporary Photography, Paris
  • 1937: Exposition internationale des arts et des techniques dans la vie moderne. Paris; solo exhibition Gaston Paris, 27, boulevard des Italiens, Paris[4]
  • 1937 Exposition internationale des arts et des techniques dans la vie moderne. Paris; Présentation Photographique du Concours Scolaire; Photos by Gaston Paris[4]
  • 2012/13, 17 October – 14 January: Here is Paris: photographic modernities, 1920-1950: the Christian Bouqueret collection. Pompidou Centre, Graphic Art Gallery and Museum Gallery[16]
  • 2013, 2 January: 1925 – 1935, Une décennie bouleversante; Marcel Artaud, Laure-Albin Guillot, Boris Lipnitzki, Jean Moral, André Papillon, Gaston Paris. Musée Nicéphore Niépce, 28 quai des Messageries, Chalon-sur-Saone
  • 2014, 28 May – 15 June: De Vu à Détective: Gaston Paris. Théâtre de la Mer (salle Tarbouriech), Promenade Maréchal Leclerc, Sète[17]
  • 2018, 7 July – 16 September: 1925-1935, Une décennie bouleversante, La photographie au service de la modernité. Musée du Château des ducs de Wurtemberg, Montbéliard
  • 2019, 23 March – 30 June: Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen, Mannheim.[18]
  • 2020, 10 July – 29 November: Alain Adler & Gaston Paris. The Rio, 7 Quai Léopold Suquet, Sète[19]
  • 2022, 19 January–18 April: Gaston Paris, Reporter, Centre Pompidou, Paris[20]
  • 2022, 20 January – 23 April: Gaston Paris, the fantastic eye, Roger-Viollet Gallery, 6 Rue de Seine, 75006 Paris[8][21]

Collections

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  • Roger-Viollet Agency[8]
  • Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris[8]

Publications about

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  • Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen (Mannheim, Allemagne); et al. Gaston Paris: die unersättliche Kamera, Köln: Buchhandlung Walther König, 2019.

References

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  1. ^ Eskind, Andrew (23 January 2022). "Gaston Paris". Photography Database. Retrieved 2022-01-23.
  2. ^ Leenaerts, Danielle (2010). Petite histoire du magazine Vu (1928-1940): entre photographie d'information et photographie d'art (in French). Bruxelles; New York: PIE Peter Lang. pp. 100, 182. ISBN 978-90-5201-585-9. OCLC 669631609.
  3. ^ "81-La Revue du Médecin n°5 - ArtetMedecine". collections.museeniepce.com. Retrieved 2022-01-18.
  4. ^ a b c Exposition internationale (24 December 1937). Exposition internationale des arts et des techniques dans la vie moderne. Paris, 1937 Vol.I List of Exhibitors official aatalogue. Volume II. Catalogue of venues. Paris: M. Déchaux: R. Stenger, 3, rue de Bruxelles, (S. M.).
  5. ^ Cannon, James (2016). The Paris Zone A Cultural History, 1840-1944. Routledge. pp. XI, 145. ISBN 978-1-315-55480-8. OCLC 7390553469.
  6. ^ "musée Nicéphore Niépce - Willy Rizzo". en.museeniepce.com. Retrieved 2022-01-18.
  7. ^ Paris, Gaston (15 June 1932). "Les Décorateurs chez eux: Dignimont". La Rampe: Revue des théâtres, music-halls, concerts, cinématographes (in French): 7.
  8. ^ a b c d "Photography Exhibition - Roger-Viollet Gallery: Gaston Paris, The Fantastic Eye". The Eye of Photography Magazine. Retrieved 2022-01-18.
  9. ^ Sichel, Kim (2020). Making strange the modernist photobook in France. p. 137. ISBN 978-0-300-24618-6. OCLC 1157343537.
  10. ^ Cadé, M. (2018). Le Front populaire au cinéma. Vingtième Siècle. Revue d'histoire, (138), 189-191
  11. ^ Lacretelle, Jacques de (1945). La Libération de Paris: 150 photographies (in French). Paris: Ed. Fasquelle. OCLC 407069891.
  12. ^ Bishop, Cécile (2018-07-19). "Photography, Race and Invisibility". Photographies. 11 (2–3): 193–213. doi:10.1080/17540763.2018.1457560. ISSN 1754-0763. S2CID 194828725.
  13. ^ Lupo, Georges; Paris, Gaston (1948). Levée d'Écrou (in French). Paris; (Sceaux: A. Bonne; Impr. de Sceaux). OCLC 461479008.
  14. ^ Chabrier, Amélie; Thérenty, Marie-Eve (2017). Détective, fabrique de crimes?: 1928-1940: le grand hebdomadaire des faits divers (in French). Nantes: Joseph K. Editeur. ISBN 978-2-910686-72-7. OCLC 995760794.
  15. ^ "Coup pour coup". Qui ? Détective: Le magazine de l'énigme et de l'aventure: 6. 29 August 1949.
  16. ^ Bajac, Quentin; Chéroux, Clément (2012). Voici Paris: modernités photographiques, 1920-1950: la collection Christian Bouqueret: ouvrage publié à l'occasion de l'exposition présentée au Centre Pompidou, Galerie d'art graphique et Galerie du musée, du 17 octobre 2012 au 14 janvier 2013 (in French). Paris: Centre Pompidou. ISBN 978-2-84426-584-5. OCLC 852717277.
  17. ^ "Gaston Paris". The Eye of Photography Magazine. 2014-09-09. Retrieved 2022-01-23.
  18. ^ Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen (2019). Gaston Paris: die unersättliche Kamera (in German). Köln: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König. ISBN 978-3-96098-569-3. OCLC 1263196302.
  19. ^ "imageSingulières: Alain Adler & Gaston Paris / Agence Roger-Viollet, Hors-Champ". The Eye of Photography Magazine. 2020-07-10. Retrieved 2022-01-23.
  20. ^ "January highlights". Apollo: The International Magazine for Collectors. 195 (704): 16–17. January 2022.
  21. ^ Desveaux, Delphine (2018-10-15). "Constitution d'une collection, pratiques, circuit des tirages photographiques et conventionnement, le point de vue d'une agence photographique historique, Roger-Viollet (1938-2005)". In Situ. Revue des patrimoines (in French) (36). doi:10.4000/insitu.18093. ISSN 1630-7305. S2CID 194924011.
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