Having completed his military service, he was
briefly employed as a photo-reporter and lab as-
sistant by a small photo agency, the Atlantic Press.
Through his acquaintance with actors at the The ́aˆ-
tre Mouffetard, he knew Chris Marker, who helped
him meet Jacques Dumons, artistic director for the
elite French magazineRe ́alite ́s, whose staff photo-
graphers were Jean-Philippe Charbonnier and
E ́douard Boubat. In 1963–1964, on Dumons’s rec-
ommendation, Gloaguen worked as an apprentice
with Gilles Ehrmann, a regular freelance contribu-
tor toRe ́alite ́s. Among his first published images in
1965 were eight color photographs presenting the
Paris production of Edward Albee’s play,Who’s
Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; these illustrate Gloa-
guen’s early experience in color photography and
his taste for stage photography.
Between 1965 and 1971, he gained further ex-
perience in photojournalism. He kept publishing in
Re ́alite ́s, but E ́lectricite ́ de France, the electricity
company, also gave him some assignments through
its ‘‘Cre ́ation-Diffusion’’ department in order to
illustrateContacts e ́lectriques, its newsletter. During
this period, he went four times to the United States,
traveling to Boston, Dallas, and New Orleans, and
exploring the contemporary art scene in New York.
In 1966, he met Andy Warhol and Merce Cunning-
ham, whom he photographed. Ugo Mulas had well
documented the artistic life of New York in hisNew
York: Arte e persone(1967). Gloaguen’s idea was to
do the same in Paris. Between 1969 and 1972, he
photographed the Parisian art scene and published
L’Art actuel en France(1973), with texts by Anne
Tronche. He joined the short-lived Agence Vu in
1971 and, thanks to his new membership, Gloaguen
had important encounters with Martine Franck,
Richard Kalvar, and Claude Raymond-Dityvon.
In 1972, Alain Dagbert, Martine Franck, Franc ̧ois
Hers, Richard Kalvar, Guy Le Querrec, Claude Rai-
mond-Dityvon, and Gloaguen created the Viva
group. A predeliction for collective action and rebel-
lion had been in France since May 1968. In this con-
text, the inception of Viva was a response to various
phenomena. Gloaguen epitomized the emergence of
photographers who wanted to include in their photo-
graphic work political and sociological content. To-
gether this group shared a moral sense and a critical
point of view on photography as a communication
device: it was too elitist and manipulated; seldom-
covered topics or groups should be thoroughly
photographed to reach a wider audience. The photo-
grapher’s moral intervention, Gloaguen pointed out,
must come before the subject’s choice, because he or
she cannot really control the use of its image. This
belief was a driving element for their group.
HisFamille d’Aix-en-Provence(1972), included in
the touring exhibition Famille en France (1973–
1976), typically illustrates this. No member of the
family notices him as he records simple daily actions,
such as parents making their bed. In many of Gloa-
guen’s images, protagonists seem unaware of him.
He admitted using long focal length lenses rarely.
Gloaguen developed in the 1970s his own style, in
which the quest for accurate, useful images did not
neglect formal qualities and personal involvement.
Photographs of daily social life became choreo-
graphed records which echo his visual interest in
theatre and music shows. InSquatters a`Islington
(ca. 1974), the movements and looks of immigrants
animate stable compositions set in a derelict, work-
ing-class London district.
Viva unsuccessfully responded to market de-
mands. In addition, personal conflicts within the
group did not help it solve management failures.
After 1978, Gloaguen gradually distanced himself
from the group, although he was still part of it offi-
cially, and he further experimented in color photo-
graphy in Lyons through the support of a grant.
In 1982, Gloaguen joined the Rapho photo
agency. His knowledge of color photography helped
him publish in both the French and German ver-
sions ofGEOfrom 1983 to 1990. He benefited from
his links with Air Solidarite ́, a humanitarian non-
governmental organization (NGO), to travel to
Africa during the 1980s. His numerous journeys
gave him a standing position in the social documen-
tation of this continent, as exemplified, in 1989,
when the Rencontres internationales de la photogra-
phie in Arles, France welcomed his exhibitionLe
miel et le bronze.One of his greatest photographic
and journalistic achievements in the 1980s was his
reporting on the international blood market, pub-
lished byGEOin 1987. The worldwide survey of this
trade again underlined his interest in denouncing
injustice. The United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR) sent him to Canada, Aus-
tralia, Pakistan, Swaziland, Thailand, and the Cen-
tral African Republic on assignment to document
refugees’ lives.
In the 1990s, his photographs were exhibited in
Paris and throughout France. In 1995, Gloaguen
finished a twenty-year photographic campaign—
documenting Roman nightlife in color. His attempt
to build an original photographic language in color
is well illustrated by this series.
The scope of Herve ́Gloaguen’s work as a photo-
journalistiswideandmostlyavailableinprint(i.e.,in
color illustrated magazines or in his books of photo-
graphs). These show his attention to French land-
scape and urbanscape. His work illustrates hisGLOAGUEN, HERVE ́