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30/1/2003

Roger Schall

Patricia Laligant Photographs, New York

Vintage photographs 1940-44

Patricia Laligant Photographs is pleased to announce an exhibition of vintage photographs from 1940-44 by French photographer Roger Schall (1904-1985) showing Paris under the German occupation.

Before World War II, Roger Schall worked mostly as a reporter. From 1932 to 1935, he covered the construction of the ship Normandie at Le Havre. In 1934, Vogue introduced him to the world of fashion where Schall excelled. In 1935, the magazine Vu asked him to cover the inaugural voyage of the Normandie from Le Havre to New York. Then in 1936, he was sent by Vu to Berlin to cover the preparation of the Olympic Games. In 1938, he was sent by Paris Match to cover the Nuremberg party rally, and the conference in Munich. He also did a few reportages in 1939 for the magazine Life.

Then, from June 14, 1940 to August 25, 1944 the German occupied Paris. During that period, the Propaganda Staffel, the German censorship that was established at 52, Avenue des Champs-Elysées, was controlling the theater, broadcasting, films, the arts and the publication of books. Any Frenchman earning his living in the arts or the press had to pass through these offices.

In 1940, obliged to be registered as a professional photographer to the Kommendantur, the German headquarters located Place de lx{2019}Opéra, Schall held card 135 and did free-lance assignments in black and white, many of them in the fields of fashion and entertainment. For his nightclub sequences taken after midnight, he received a special permit, or Ausweis. Beside his professional work, Roger Schall covered extensively the German occupation of Paris. Those photographs were never seen by the censorship, as he kept carefully all his negatives aside.

Then, as soon as the occupation was over, Raymond Schall, brother of Roger Schall, published a book: A Paris sous la Botte des Nazis / Paris under the Heel of the Nazis illustrated with the photographs of Roger Schall, Joublin, Parry, Vals, Jarnoux, Papillon, Berson, Roughol, Pichonnier, Jahan, Coutant, Doisneau and the Seeberger brothers. The book was a bestseller and was reedited five times. Some of the photographs exhibited in the show are reproduced in that book. The photographs on display show the occupant in his daily life: guarding the German headquarters in a deserted city, guarding Versailles, in their weekly march on the Champs Elyseés, taking the subway, visiting the Louvre, going to spectacles, shopping...

Since many artists refused to be registered at the Kommandantur, the controversy regarding Roger Schall is still going on. Can we consider that Schall collaborated with the German occupant? Or as suggested in the last movie of Bertrand Tavernier on the same subject: Laisser Passer / Safe Conduct, should we rather ask ourselves what was then the most courageous attitude: being against the occupant but decide to continue to work anyway, hoping that by knowing them better we could fight them better, or being against the occupant and doing nothing? An active or a passive resistance? Today rare photographs showing the German occupation of Paris are historical documents which prove what really happened.

After World War II, Schall continued to work until 1965. In 1982, during an interview with Schall, Roger Thérond, director of Paris Match, said to him: 'You were one of those who kept alive and fanned the spark of journalism that would never die. Do not blush, Roger Schall, this is the truth'.

Gallery hours: Fridays & Saturdays 11-6 pm & by appointment

Opening Reception: Friday, January 31, from 4 to 8 pm

PATRICIA LALIGANT PHOTOGRAPHS
150 West 28 Street - Suite 1702 New York NY 10001 - Tel (212) 252-9922 - Fax (212) 627-2993

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