From Marilyn Monroe to the faces of the Bronx, the photos of star photojournalist Henri Dauman exhibited in Nice

He chronicled America for more than 30 years. Photojournalist Henri Dauman is the subject of a retrospective at the Nice Photography Museum. From the fight for civil rights to portraits of Elvis Presley or Brigitte Bardot, nearly 170 photographs take the public on a journey through the recent history of the United States.

It remained unknown in France for a long time. Henri Dauman nevertheless produced numerous photographs that have become iconic. When he arrived in New York from his native Paris in 1950 at the age of 17 years old, he is armed with an immense appetite for discovery and a camera. His photos will become legendary and make him one of the greatest photojournalists of the 20th century. century.

lifeTHE New York Times, Newsweek : the biggest magazines will publish Dauman’s photos. He will be there for the movements that are shaking America : the fight for civil rights, the elections then the burial of John Kennedy, the emergence of pop-art. The big story in the making, but also the individual stories, which he knows how to capture : like with this photo from 1958 where he captures on film Yves Saint’s first visit Laurent in America.

“It’s a perpetual movement”explains Vincent Montana, curator of the exhibition The Manhattan Darkroom in front of the photograph of Yves Saint Lawrence. “His photography is in movement. And when we look at the contact sheets, we see it clearly, he cuts, it’s cinema. It ends with one photo, but when you look at it, everyone is moving around.”

Nothing predestined him for photography. Henri Dauman was born in 1933 to Jewish parents in Paris. His father was deported by the French police and died in the Auschwitz camp. The young boy narrowly escapes the Vel roundup of Winter and is only 13 years old when his mother died in 1946. At 17 years old, an orphan, he decided to cross the Atlantic.

First fascinated by the power and architectural elegance of New York City, he has a unique perspective on the city. Quickly, his portraits attracted the biggest titles in the American press. His sharp eye accurately captures those who live in the shadows, but also those who expose themselves in the spotlight. From Marilyn Monroe’s resplendent sequin dress to Elvis Presley and Brigitte Bardot, her photos have gone around the world.

The exhibition The Manhattan Darkroom, presented for the first time at Palace of Jena in Paris in 2014, provides a unique look at America. She traveled to numerous museums and galleries before stopping off for four month at the Charles Nègre Museum of Photography in Nice.

The 170 The selected photos only offer a glimpse of the immense work of the photographer whose personal archives still contain numerous rarely exhibited negatives. “IThere are still 2 million of them”, specifies Brigitte Dauman, his daughter, who now watches over the Henri Dauman photographic collection. “We have a big job ahead of us.”

Throughout his career, he kept in mind the idea of ​​opening his readers’ field of vision. “A successful photo is a photo that tells a story. We can perhaps change the reader’s opinion,” he said in an interview with France Televisions in June 2023, a few months before his death at the age of 90 years. The man considered himself a craftsman rather than an artist. Only his photos mattered.

“Henri Dauman – The Manhattan Darkroom”, from 17 February to 26 May 2024, Nice Photography Museum.