Paris photo exhibition causes controversy

Antipodean Andy · Apr 21, 2008

If it's clearly explained that the photographer was employed by Signal, I would have thought it'd be obvious the pics were rosy rather than bleak. Perhaps it could also be looked at as the Parisiens doing their best under occupation? I mean, there was a reason for things like Operation Squabble! - http://ww2chat.com/forums/war-air/2154-back-tea.html

Storm over photos of Paris under Nazis | NEWS.com.au

AN exhibition of rare colour photographs of occupied Paris in World War II has sparked a controversy in France, with some politicians saying it paints too rosy a picture of life under the Nazis.

Paris deputy mayor Christophe Girard, who heads the city's culture department, has even suggested shutting down the show of work by French photographer Andre Zucca unless the organisers seek to counterbalance the cheery vision on display.

"It doesn't explain enough that this was Nazi propaganda, and this makes me vomit ... As it stands, we're looking at revisionist history," Mr Girard said today.

Called Parisians Under the Occupation, the 270 colour photos depict a wartime Paris with more emphasis on joy than the jackboot - which Mr Girard said is inappropriate for an occupation still painful in French collective memory.

"We plan to discuss the matter with historians and see if we can modify things to save the exhibition. But if we can't, I'd like to see it closed," Mr Girard said.

Photography was forbidden in occupied Paris, but Zucca, a Frenchman who died in 1973, obtained permits and supplies from his employer - the Nazi propaganda magazine Signal.

The happy-go-lucky shots include a grande dame on a shopping promenade, sunbathers lounging along the river Seine, chic youths flirting and families spending a day at the races - life going on as normal in a city prized by the Nazis.

Many consider Zucca a collaborator for working where he did, but that didn't keep throngs of Parisians from packing the municipal historical library housing the photos last weekend.

At the entrance, curators distributed notices explaining how the never-before displayed photos of an easy-going wartime Paris were the fruit of Zucca's connection with the Nazis.

"He owed this 'privilege' to his employment by Signal, the German organ of Nazi propaganda," it said, adding that requirements of 1940s-era colour film meant photos had to be taken in bright, sunny conditions.

German troops make scant appearance in the exhibition, but some grim realities do surface, if rarely: Jews appear wearing the Star of David, and official notices explain that resistance members would be summarily shot as illegal combatants.

To organisers the photos, purchased from Zucca's family, offer a valuable if biased snapshot of a dark period of history.

"To me, Andre Zucca is a great photographer," exhibition commissioner Jean Baronet told the newspaper Liberation.

"When he photographed Paris and the Parisians from 1940 onwards, it was also great art, and with an extraordinary mastery of composition," he said.
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Kyt · Apr 22, 2008

"As it stands, we're looking at revisionist history," Mr Girard

Hmmm, maybe the photos are rather "rosy" but they are still an indication of the way that most of France accepted the occupation and got on with their lives.

What is revisionist is the continual insistance that all Frenchmen were resisters, and that collaboration was a minority activity.

spidge · Apr 22, 2008

Kyt said: ↑

"As it stands, we're looking at revisionist history," Mr Girard

Hmmm, maybe the photos are rather "rosy" but they are still an indication of the way that most of France accepted the occupation and got on with their lives.

What is revisionist is the continual insistence that all Frenchmen were resisters, and that collaboration was a minority activity.
Click to expand...

Weren't they? (don't forget the fairer sex) wasn't it?:mad2:

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