AFP opens its photographic gallery with a unique exhibition on the Liberation of Paris

This first exhibition entitled “Paris 1944, a week in August” will be held until November 2 at the agency’s headquarters.

On Thursday, September 12, Agence France-Presse (AFP) is opening its first gallery dedicated to photography in Paris with a unique exhibition dedicated to the Liberation of the capital, the 80th anniversary of which is being commemorated. Located at 9 Place de la Bourse, the headquarters of AFP, this first exhibition entitled Paris 1944, a week in Augustwill be held until November 2. It will be open to the public from Wednesday to Saturday, from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

In the longer term, the gallery will present free exhibitions several times a year, with “with the ambition of bringing to the public the exceptional riches of the agency’s photographic collection which too often lie dormant in drawers”, explains Marielle Eudes, its director of special photo projects.

“With 6 million silver documents, including 350,000 glass plates, and some 20 million digital documents, the AFP photographic collection constitutes a historical, heritage and photographic treasure that must be open to all”

Marielle Eudes, Director of Special Photo Projects

To AFP

The ambition is also to “to present to the public, through exhibitions, the major photographic signatures who have made the reputation of the photo service” of the agency, through collector’s prints, most of which will be offered for sale, explains Marielle Eudes.

The first exhibition presents a dialogue between the images of the agency’s professionals and amateur photos from the collection of two enthusiasts, Laurent Fournier and Alain Eymard. In August 1944, “professionals, war correspondents and agency photographers were involved in documenting the last battles in the heart of the capital in large numbers. Among them, several worked with the AFP from the very first days,” the former Havas agency, placed under German control in 1940, taken over on August 20, 1944 and renamed Agence Française de Presse, recalls the press kit.

Their reporting was coordinated “as much as possible” by Henri Membré, “FFI armband on the arm”, who will then set up the AFP photographic service. “At the same time, Parisians are taking out their bellows cameras, stored in drawers since the German order of September 16, 1940, prohibiting the taking of photographs outdoors,” rewinds AFP. “Their photos, often blurry, taken from a distance, not always framed, bear witness to the exaltation of a moment that they know is historic.”

AFP, which published its first dispatch on August 20, 1944, is one of the three major global news agencies, and the only European one. With 2,600 employees of 100 nationalities, it provides media outlets around the world, as well as businesses, institutions and digital platforms, with information in six languages ​​(French, English, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic) and on all media (text, photos, video, infographics, audio).