through a rambling autobiographical meditation
and sensitive readings of images. Newspapers on-
ly began running columns on photography in the
1980s (mostlyLe Mondewith Serge Guibert).
The history of photography has long been an
underdeveloped discipline, one essentially based
on the nineteenth century. Although two histories
of photography (Rouille ́et Frizot) were published,
their editors had to rely on many foreign scholars
in the absence of specialized French historians. The
field is now undergoing a revival after the pioneer-
ing work of nineteenth-century historian Andre ́
Rouille ́, with MA and PhD students doing original
research under the guidance of a younger genera-
tion of scholars trained in many different disci-
plines, making the study of ‘‘the photographic
image’’ an exciting transdisciplinary field (Brunet,
Frizot, Gunthert, Poivert).
France was both early and late in institutionaliz-
ing photography. Just as the newly born photo-
graphic process was immediately taken within the
field of the law through the patent—in that respect
differing from what happened in Great Britain and
the United States (Brunet,L’histoire de l’ide ́ede
photographie)—photography was included in offi-
cial collections as early as the nineteenth century.
Because of thede ́poˆtle ́gallaw, requesting that all
printed matter be registered at the Bibliotheque nationale de Paris (National Library), the Cabinet des estampes (Prints Division) received pictures as early as 1851, on the grounds that they were ‘‘paper editions.’’ It remained, however, an archival and haphazard process until the mid-40s and early 50s, when young librarians started an active policy of collecting images, not from the point of view of illustration and information (organized by subject matter) but from that of authorship (organization by author). In the 1970s, Jean-Claude Lemagny, the head librarian for photography at the Cabinet des estampes, furthered the process, making the Cabinet des estampes a central player in the field. However, in the early 1980s, creative photography of the first half of the twentieth century and especially of the interwar years was still virtually absent from public collections. A policy of acquisitions and gifts (against tax exemption) allowed such institutions as the Bibliotheque nationale, the Muse ́enationald’art
moderne, and the Ministry of Culture (since 1975) to
acquire such archives as those of Lartigue (1979/
1986), Ronis (1983), Kerte ́sz (1984), Kollar (1987),
and Rene ́-Jacques (1990). Various museums in the
Regions also developed their photographic collec-
tions, such as the Muse ́eNice ́phore Nie ́pce (Chaˆ-
lons-sur-Saoˆne), the Re ́attu (Arles), and the
Museums of Marseille. Almost independently, the
Municipal gallery of the Chaˆteau d’eau in Toulouse,
created by Jean Dieuzaide (1974), ran many impor-
tant exhibitions. Eventually, the Fonds National
d’Art Contemporain, which started to collect photo-
graphy in 1980, and its regional branches, FRAC,
especially FRAC-Aquitaine, began large collections
of mostly contemporary photography and commis-
sioned works as well.
JeanKempf
Seealso:Abbott, Berenice; Andre ́; Atget, Euge`ne;
Barthes, Roland; Bellmer, Hans; Bibliothe`que natio-
nale de Paris; Boltanski, Christian; Brassaı ̈; Cahun,
Claude; Capa, Robert; Cartier-Bresson, Henri; Cen-
tre national de la photographie; David ‘‘Chim’’;
Digital Photography; Doisneau, Robert; Festivals;
Frank, Martine; Frank, Robert; Henri, Florence;
Hers, Franc ̧ois; History of Photography: Interwar
Years; History of Photography: Postwar Era; Ker-
te ́sz; Krull, Germaine; Lartigue, Jacques Henri;
Lemagny, Jean-Claude; Maar, Dora; Magnum
Photos; Maison europe ́enne de la photographie;
Photogram; Photography in Europe: An Over-
view; Pictorialism; Plossu, Bernard; Propaganda;
Ray, Man; Riboud, Marc; Semiotics; Seymour;
Surrealism; Tabard, Maurice; Ubac, RaoulFurther Reading
BKL.Trwa Kartie ́. Entre mythologies et pratiques. Lyon: La
Martinie`re, 1994.
Bouqueret, Christian.Les Femmes photographes de la Nou-
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Bourdieu, Pierre.Un art moyen, Paris: Minuit, 1965;Photo-
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Brunet, Franc ̧ ois.La Naissance de l’ide ́e de photographie.
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Durand, Re ́gis.Le temps de l’image: essai sur les conditions
d’une histoire des formes photographiques. Paris: la Dif-
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Etudes photographiques. 1996.(http://etudesphotographiques.
revues.org, http://www.sfp.photographie.com)
Galassi, Peter.Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Early Work.
New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1987.
Kempf, Jean. ‘‘American Photography in France since
World War II: Was France Liberated by the United
States.’’ InAmerican Photographs in Europe. David
Nye and Mick Gidley, eds. Amsterdam: Vu University
Press, 1994.
Krauss, Rosalind, and Jane Livingston.L’amour fou: photo-
graphy and surrealism. Washington, D.C.: Corcoran
Gallery of Art; New York: Abbeville Press, 1985.
Les Cahiers de la photographie1979–1993.
Mora, Gilles, and Claude Nori.L’E ́te ́dernier: manifeste
photobiographique. Paris: E ́ditions de l’E ́toile, 1983.
Nesbit, Molly.Atget’s Seven Albums. New Haven: Yale
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