RENÉ-JACQUES (René Giton, known as) 1908-2003 - Lot 42

RENÉ-JACQUES (René Giton, known as) 1908-2003 "Saint-Lazare", Place de l'Europe, Paris, winter 1945-1946. Photograph. Posterior silver print, stamped by the author and captioned in ink on the back. Image: 34.7 x 26.8 cm; sheet: 39.7 x 29.7 cm From 1946 to the end of his career in 1975, René-Jacques was the main illustrator of a dozen books on Paris, and collaborated on fifteen others. Leaving the scenes of bustling streets and atmospheric Parisian cafés to his colleagues Doisneau and Ronis, René-Jacques became the organizer of the capital's little-known treasures. Shot in medium format, his images are a methodical survey of the city's remarkable or forgotten architecture and landscapes. They formed the core of the collection of the photographic agency he founded in 1947. A staunch defender of photographers' copyright, he insisted on retaining ownership of his illustrations, and saw them used in books, calendars, almanacs and record sleeves. In 1991, aware of the richness of his photographic work, he donated it to the French state. Now housed at the Médiathèque du Patrimoine et de la Photographie (MPP), the René-Jacques donation includes his negatives, a collection of over 20,000 prints, and a rich archive of his publications, professional correspondence and plates of reading prints.