|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
 |
Story by Jack Foley |
  |
THE WORK of one of the great hunters of Paris street scenes during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s is now on show at London's Hackelbury Gallery, in Launceston Place, offering a gentle, almost romantic, insight into life in the French capital during that time.
The self-titled exhibition, Willy Ronis, features 45 black and white
vintage photographs by the acclaimed photographer, concentrating in particular
on the postwar years from 1945 to the late 1950s, and featuring the odd recent
image, during the 1990s, when the tireless artist took up parachuting (a sport
he was to indulge in well into his nineties).
The son of Jews from the Crimea and Lithuania, Ronis grew up on the edge of
Montmartre, where he helped his father run the family's portrait studio. He
took on more of the burden of the studio when his father was diagnosed with
cancer and quickly became bored with the formality of its confines, opting
instead to roam the streets, often at night, with a collection of small cameras,
observing fairs, markets and traffic and developing the idea that the life
of a city contains many subversive elements beneath its ordinary exterior.
His talent was quickly recognised and he sold his photographs to magazines
such as Regards, a Communist weekly which was renowned for using politically
inspired Modernist photography and graphics. It was during this time that
Ronis came across other photographers working the Paris streets, including
Robert Doisneau, whom he befriended and became influenced by.
When his father died in 1936, the 26-year-old Ronis was confident enough to
leave behind the family studio and set out on his own.
The postwar images featured in the Hackelbury's collection were taken during
a bleak time in Paris history when, materially, conditions for most of French
society were worse than they had been during Nazi occupation. This was because
industry and communications had been largely destroyed, housing conditions
were still poor, fuel was in short supply and simply getting enough to eat
became a major problem.
In
spite of this, the younger generation emerged with a renewed vitality and
appetite for life that had been largely dampened by the wasteful war years.
It was this emerging happiness that Ronis chose to capture and much of his
time was spent where he knew he could find couples kissing; heralding the
onslaught of the new, romantic era.
Included in the exhibition is a portrait of a nurse kissing an injured, liberated
French soldier goodbye (which is truly touching and which the photographer
refused to publish at the time), as well as the classic Les Amourex de la
Bastille, featuring a young couple dressed in their Sunday best turning quietly
to each other to embrace while on top of the Bastille Tower (which is now
closed to the public). It offers a genuinely thrilling view of Paris.
By the late 1950s, Ronis was a widely-respected photographer whose work had
been widely published. He had also been featured at two American exhibitions,
curated by Edward Steichen, who placed his work at New York's prestigious
Museum of Modern Art alongside the likes of Brassai and his friend, Doisneau.
Visitors to the Impressionist exhibition will no doubt delight in the cafe
culture captured by Ronis, which feature cobblestone streets, attractive young
lovers gazing out over some of the world's most popular views, and, of course,
life among the baguettes (a defining feature, even today, of Parisian life).
Pictured above, right, is a portrait of Ronis's wife in Provence, in 1949.
The Hackelbury Fine Art Gallery is located at 4 Launceston Place, London, W8 and the exhibition can be viewed until April 27.