Inside AFP

Located within the premises of the renowned news agency at 9 Place de la Bourse, the AFP Gallery will offer three free exhibitions each year, with the aim of providing the public with events of museum-quality calibre. 

The exhibitions will showcase the work of the esteemed photographers who have shaped the reputation of AFP's photo service, with many of the works available for purchase. 

"With this in-house photo gallery, AFP continues its outreach to the general public and collectors, a journey that began in 2021 with exhibitions followed by auctions of limited-edition prints," says Marielle Eudes, AFP's Director of Special Photo Projects. 

The Inaugural Exhibition: "Paris 1944, a Week in August" 

"Paris 1944, a Week in August" focuses on the week of Paris's Liberation, which also marks the birth of AFP, with its first news story released on 20 August 1944. 

AFP offers a dialogue between photographs taken by the agency's professionals, drawn from its exceptional archive, and amateur images captured by Parisians during the Liberation, sourced from the Fournier-Eymard collection. 

Numerous professionals, including war correspondents and agency photographers, dedicated themselves to documenting the final battles within the heart of the capital. Among them were several who worked with AFP from its earliest days (the former Havas Agency, placed under German control in 1940, was taken over by the insurgents on 20 August 1944 and renamed Agence Française de Presse).  

They rallied around Henri Membré, who, with a FFI armband on his sleeve, coordinated his colleagues’ reports as best he could. Following the Liberation, Membré would go on to establish AFP's photographic service. 

Meanwhile, Parisians retrieved their folding cameras, long stored away since the German ordinance of 16 September 1940, which banned outdoor photography. Those who still had film bravely defied the dangers and the snipers on rooftops. Their photos, often blurry, taken from a distance, and not always perfectly framed, capture the exhilaration of a moment they knew to be historic. Hundreds of these images would eventually form part of the rich collection assembled by Alain Eymard and Laurent Fournier, two passionate enthusiasts and experts on the Leclerc Division and the liberation of Paris. 

This visual conversation reminds us that while photographs remain an irreplaceable source for establishing historical truths, they are also a powerful emotional conduit, allowing the viewer to engage personally with history. The project was born of a chance encounter: during an AFP exhibition in the autumn of 2022, a visitor meticulously examined a series of photographs, taking notes in a school notebook. The elderly gentleman, wearing a cap and speaking with a Parisian accent, addressed the curators: “This photo cannot be from 24 August 1944, because it rained that morning.” Numerous discussions followed, revealing the curious visitor to be a true expert on the period. 

Alain Eymard passionately recounts how he, alongside his collaborator Laurent Fournier, gathered photographs of the liberation. These images are stored in blue, white, and red binders, which they scrutinise under a magnifying glass, hunting for hidden details, such as shop signs, buildings, and street names. They cross-reference these details with a 1941 directory, found in a second-hand bookshop, listing the businesses and professions in the Seine department. They identify the locations, days, and even hours with remarkable precision. 

This meticulous work aims to create a highly accurate film of those historic days. Their expertise even led them to correct some of AFP's captions. 

 The AFP exhibition "Paris 1944, a Week in August" has been awarded the national label "80th Anniversary of the Liberation."