In Situ (Oct 2018)
Copyright Doisneau / Rapho
Abstract
For the people in archive institutions who are responsible for the conservation of photo collections coming from photo agencies, press groups, newspapers or magazines, the way photographic agencies operated is by no means clearly understood, in particular the administrative and commercial activities of these agencies and the nature of their relations with their photographers. The difficulties in appreciating the issues involved in the production of photographic images often act as an obstacle to developing appropriate projects for treating and exploiting these complex documentary collections when they become archives. In November 2015, the French National Archives and the Photography Mission at the Ministry of Culture organised a study day devoted to press photo archives. The exchanges made it clear that better understanding was needed of the mechanisms of producing and diffusing photo reportages carried out for photo agencies, and, in particular, of the nature of the contractual links between the photographers and their agencies, and how the photographers might transfer their rights to the agency for the it’s commercial activities. But it was soon apparent that this ambition was a difficult one to accomplish: each agency had its own way of operating and its own rules for diffusing pictures and transferring rights. It is consequently difficult, if not impossible to generalise. This is why we prefer here to look at the mythical collaboration between a particular photographer and his agency, Robert Doisneau and Rapho. As a photographer, Doisneau remained faithful to this one agency from the moment of his first photos published as an independent photographer just before the Second World War, up to his last works, taken shortly before his death in 1994. This long professional partnership is largely due to the friendship and understanding between the photographer and the agency’s director, Raymond Grosset, and his photographer colleagues, Ergy Landau, Ylla, Emile Savitry, Willy Ronis, Sabine Weiss, Édouard Boubat… Who better than Francine Deroudille, Doisneau’s daughter who was also an editorial secretary at the Rapho agency for more than twenty years, could explain this collaboration to us? Her point of view, both as a copyright beneficiary and as a member of the staff at her father’s agency, her understanding, consequently, of how Rapho worked, are precious assets in appreciating the agency’s operation and the way it diffused its photos.
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