Manchester, William Raymond.In Our Time: The World as
Seen by Magnum Photographers. New York: American
Federation of Arts with Norton Press, 1989.
Miller, Russell.Magnum: Fifty Years at the Front Line of
History. New York: Grove Press, 1997.
Stevenson, Sara.Magna Brava: Magnum’s Women Photo-
graphers, Eve Arnold, Martine Franck, Susan Meiselas,
Inge Morath, and Marilyn Silverstone. Munich: Prestel,
1999.MAISON EUROPE
́
ENNE DE LA
PHOTOGRAPHIE
The Maison Europe ́enne de la Photographie, situ-
ated in the historic heart of Paris, is a major centre
for contemporary photographic art. Opened in
1996 and created and directed by Jean-Luc Mon-
terosso, the M.E.P. represents a completely new
kind of cultural establishment. It houses an exhibi-
tion centre, a large library, a video viewing facility
with a wide selection of films by or about photo-
graphers, and an auditorium. It is designed to make
the three fundamental photographic media—exhi-
bition prints, the printed page, and film—easily
accessible to all.
The mansion which houses the M.E.P., situated
at no. 82, rue Franc ̧ois Miron, was built in 1706 for
He ́nault de Cantobre, the royal tax collector. It has
belonged to the City of Paris since 1914, and was
chosen as the site for the M.E.P. in 1990. The city
authorities asked the Yves Lion firm of architects
to undertake the restoration of the original build-
ing, as well as the addition of a new wing on the rue
de Fourcy. The fac ̧ade overlooking the street, the
period ironwork, and the central staircase are all
fine examples of classical architecture, and as such
all are listed features.
The M.E.P. has some 15,000 square feet of exhi-
bition space on several floors. New selections of
works from the permanent collections are shown
regularly in addition to the temporary exhibitions.
The Collection
Established in the early 1980s, the collection consists
of over 15,000 works and is representative of inter-
national photography from the end of the 1950s to
the present day. The acquisition of several complete
series of photographs (including Robert Frank’s
‘‘Les Ame ́ricains,’’ Josef Koudelka’s ‘‘Prague 1968,’’
and Raymond Depardon’s ‘‘Correspondance new-
yorkaise’’) has made it possible to organize coherent
monographic exhibitions. Major donations have also
augmented the collection, for example from Dai Nip-
pon Printing (Tokyo) and the Reader’s Digest Foun-
dation. The Polaroid Company of Boston has placed
1,500 original Polaroid prints in trust of the Centre,
and an entire gallery is devoted to Irving Penn, one of
the greatest photographers of the second half of the
twentieth century.
The permanent collection reflects the art of photo-
graphy in all its various forms, from photojournal-
ism to fashion photography to works that stand
halfway between photography and the plastic arts.
The inaugural exhibition at the M.E.P. in spring
1996 was entitledUne Aventure Contemporaine: la
Photographie and looked at the most important
developments in photography over the last forty
years. Since then a series of large retrospectives
and themed exhibitions have offered opportunities
to discover—or rediscover—the work of some of
the most important figures of recent photographic
history, such as an exhibition of Pierre et Gilles, the
Paris of William Klein, or ‘‘ Errances’’ (wander-
ings) by Raymond Depardon.The Rome ́o Martinez Library
The library’s catalogue is built around the collec-
tion of the historian Rome ́o Martinez, for 20 years
editor-in-chief ofCamera magazine. It now has
some 18,000 titles, including a large number of
first editions, spanning the last 50 years of the
history of photography. It provides both research-
ers and members of the photography-loving public
with an exceptionally extensive overview of photo-
graphic publishing the world over. There are, forMAISON EUROPE ́ENNE DE LA PHOTOGRAPHIE