As part of the exhibition "Artistic Crafts in the Photographs of François Kollar", the bibliothèque Forney invites you to discover the career of one of the leading professionals in French photography of the 1930s–1950s
Born in Szenc, now located in Slovaquie, François Kollar arrived in Paris in 1924. Initially employed as a metal turner at Renault, he began a professional career in printing and advertising in 1927 before setting up his own photography studio in Paris. An early commission entitled La France travaille marked a turning point in his career: the resulting volumes (1931–1934), published by Éditions Horizons de France, contain around two thousand of his photographs documenting industry and craftsmanship. His extensive network of contacts enabled him to undertake commissions for haute couture houses (Lanvin, Chanel, Hermès), the illustrated press ( L’Illustration , Harper’s Bazaar , Vu), and publishing houses. After the war, he worked for the French government, documenting investment in the industrial development of Afrique occidentale française (Mali, Sénégal, Burkina Faso and Côte-d’Ivoire), as well as the emergence of air freight through the workshops of the Union aéromaritime des transports. Ten years after the Jeu de Paume retrospective, which prominently featured the François Kollar collections held by the Bibliothèque Fornay and the Médiathèque du patrimoine et de la photographie, this talk offers an opportunity to revisit the career of one of the leading professionals in French photography of the 1930s–1950s. - The speaker, Matthieu Rivallin, spent most of his career at the Médiathèque du patrimoine et de la photographie (MPP), first as a photography collections manager (where he was notably responsible for the Kollar collection), then as deputy curator, before becoming head of the photography department in 2024. As an Inspecteur conseiller de la création artistique (ICCEAAC), he works to acquire the archives of photographers for the MPP, has curated around twenty exhibitions, and has written numerous catalogues.
Admission: Book via this link
Source: paris.fr — photo: Ville de Paris / bibliothèque Forney