François Kollar, a worker of the gaze
When: 08.10.2026 20:30
Where: 48.853775, 2.361192
Organizer: Admin
Born in
Szenc, now located in Slovakia, François Kollar arrived in Paris in 1924.
First employed as a metal turner at Renault, he began in 1927 a
professional career in printing and advertising before
setting up his own photographic studio in Paris. A first commission
titled La France travaille marks
his career: the works (1931-1934) that resulted at Éditions
Horizons de France contain about two thousand of his photographs documenting
industry and craftsmanship. His extensive network of contacts allows him to take on commissions for haute couture (Lanvin, Chanel,
Hermès), for illustrated press (L’Illustration, Harper’s Bazaar, Vu) and for publishing houses.
After the war, he worked for the State to illustrate
investment in the industrial development of French West Africa
(Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso and Côte-d’Ivoire), as well as the
birth of air freight with the workshops of the Union aéromaritime des
transports.
Ten years
after the Jeu de Paume retrospective that highlighted the François Kollar collections preserved by the Bibliothèque Fornay and the Médiathèque du
patrimoine et de la photographie, this talk is an opportunity to revisit
the career of one of the great French photography professionals
of the 1930s-1950s.
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The speaker
Matthieu Rivallin has spent
the bulk of his career at the Médiathèque du patrimoine et de la
photographie (MPP), first as a photographic collections curator (where he
was notably in charge of the Kollar collection), then deputy to the curator
before becoming head of the photography department in 2024. Artistic creation advisor (ICCEAAC), he works on collecting
photographer authors' archives at the MPP, has curated about twenty
exhibitions and authored numerous catalogues.
Tags: history, photography, art, lecture
Source: https://www.paris.fr/evenements/francois-kollar-un-ouvrier-du-regard-115464
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