Social and humanist photography

Edito

Rather than pursuing aesthetic ideals or the conventions of the salon, many photographers chose to turn their attention to human realities, whether the hardships of social life or the sense of solidarity that shaped post-war humanist photography. As early as 1850, Charles Nègre preferred the streets of Paris, with his famous photographs of chimney sweeps, to studio portraits of celebrities. The foundations were already there. Yet social and humanist photographers would eventually develop an aesthetic language entirely their own.

This shift in perspective anticipated a central concern of social and humanist photography: giving visibility to lives and realities largely excluded from dominant representations.

Yet documenting reality also means giving it form. Moving between the observation of everyday life, social engagement and aesthetic exploration, social and humanist photography encompasses a wide range of approaches. From Willy Ronis to Jane Evelyn Atwood, via Sabine Weiss, Louis Stettner and Jean Hermanson, these five documentaries explore not only what photographers choose to reveal, but also how they construct their images.

5 films
4 h 1 min
Edito, 2 min read

55’

Willy Ronis, Self-Portrait of a Photographer

France - 2003 fr en

A photographic legend reflects on his life and art.

Willy Ronis embraced with humanism the great social subjects of the 20th century. For this film, he joins in the game of self-portraiture. He looks back on his beginnings, the big issues that shaped his art and the battles he fought so that his photos do not serve as mere illustrations in the press. Browsing through his archives, he delves into the history of his iconic images and invites us to experience the few minutes that preceded them. He also tells us about the importance of baroque music and Flemish painting in his apprenticeship as a photographer, moulding over time a polyphonic art.

57’

Sabine Weiss: One Century of Photography

France - 2022 en

A tenderness for people

In her Paris studio, surrounded by her archives and her husband’s paintings, Sabine Weiss looks back on nearly a century of photography.

One of the last representatives of the humanist school talks about her images, born of a constant attention to the people she met in France and around the world, and of a sense of composition she called innate.

23’

Louis Stettner | In Memory’s Light

France - 1999 fr en

Showing everyday life

Having settled in Paris after the war, American photographer Louis Stettner takes us from his home and studio in Saint-Ouen to the flea market and his usual café.

Nearly eighty, he recalls the Paris he knew and his undiminished wish to show the reality of everyday life.

Jane Evelyn Atwood | Around Pigalle - cover 16:9

27’

Jane Evelyn Atwood | Around Pigalle

France - 2019 fr en

Delving into the lives and streets of Pigalle through Atwood's eyes.

As she prepares to publish her book "Pigalle People" and presents one of her major exhibitions “Histoires de Prostitution”, Jane Evelyn Atwood delves into her archives of the 1970s, the period when she photographed the prostitutes and transsexuals in Paris Les Halles and Pigalle districts. For four years, she captured their everyday lives and intimate moments. From the photo lab, where she prints her images, to the printing of the book and the exhibition opening, she discusses her encounters and the connections made on the street which accompany her still.

77’

Jean Hermanson | The Celestial Darkroom

Sweden - 2017 sv en

The working world

For more than forty years, Swedish photographer Jean Hermanson documented the daily lives of workers, at work, at rest and in the street, with grace and humanity.

When he died during filming, director Nils Petter Löfstedt set out to find the people he had photographed forty years earlier.

What you’ll find

Portraits of photographers, names everyone knows and others you’ll discover here. Films about street photography, war, fashion or portraiture, about printing and historical processes. About the trades of photography too. And then suggestions for going further, with Focuses, articles, interviews, bibliographies.

A small independent team

Documentaries about photography were rarely shown on television, and hardly at all on streaming platforms. We created The Darkroom Rumour to give them a place of their own. We are a small team, and we choose every film ourselves, with no school to defend.

Inspire your photography

In these films, you see photographers at work, in the field as well as in the darkroom. If you take pictures, you’ll often come away with an idea to try. If you simply like looking at images, you may start to see them differently.

How it works

You can watch the films online, anywhere in the world, on a computer, tablet or phone, and on TV by mirroring your phone’s or computer’s screen. Every film is available in French and English, with no ads. New releases come out on Saturday or Sunday. The trial lasts 7 days, and if you stop before day 8, you pay nothing.

The Darkroom Rumour on a TV, a computer, a tablet and a phone

Linked Articles

by Christine Delory-Momberger

Jane Evelyn Atwood, a Free Photographer

linked to Jane Evelyn Atwood | Around Pigalle

Jane Evelyn Atwood is an independent woman and photographer whose freedom has been forged both through her experiences and the struggles she wages in life to protect her creative space. But this freedom is tenuous. It must be regained with each act, each decision, each gesture and it requires unfail…

Jean Hermanson’s Celestial Darkroom: Nils Petter Löfstedt

by Nils Petter Löfstedt

Jean Hermanson’s Celestial Darkroom: Nils Petter Löfstedt

linked to Jean Hermanson | The Celestial Darkroom

In an exchange with The Darkroom Rumour, filmmaker Nils Petter Löfstedt reveals part of the moving journey behind "The Celestial Darkroom".Through written answers to five questions, he shares the happy beginnings and emotional upheavals that shaped his cinematic tribute to Hermanson's legacy, as wel…

Further exploration

Selected bibliography

Willy Ronis, Self-Portrait of a Photographer

• Matthieu Rivallin, Willy Ronis by Willy Ronis: The Master Photographer's Unpublished Albums, Flammarion, 2018. Libraries

• Alexander Gaude, Jean-Claude Gautrand, Markus Müller and Ann-Katrin Hahn, Willy Ronis, Kehrer Verlag, 2013 (bilingual). Libraries

• Sylvia Bohmer and Matthias Harder, Willy Ronis: la vie en passant, Prestel, 2005 (bilingual). Libraries

• Jean-Claude Gautrand (ed.), Willy Ronis, Taschen, 2005. Libraries

• Paul Ryan, Willy Ronis, Phaidon Press, 2002. Libraries

• Peter Hamilton, Willy Ronis: Photographs, 1926-1995, Museum of Modern Art, 1995.

Sabine Weiss: One Century of Photography

• Virginie Chardin, Sabine Weiss, Actes Sud, 2021. Publisher · Libraries

• Virginie Chardin, Sabine Weiss, Éditions de la Martinière, 2016. Publisher · Libraries

• Luce Lebart and Marie Robert (eds.), Une histoire mondiale des femmes photographes, Textuel, 2020. Publisher · Libraries

• Virginie Chardin and Denis Curti, Sabine Weiss : The Poetry of the Instant, Marsilio Editori, 2022. Libraries

Louis Stettner | In Memory’s Light

• David Campany (ed.), Louis Stettner, Fundación MAPFRE / Thames & Hudson, 2024. Publisher · Libraries

• Louis Stettner, Early Joy: Photographs from 1947–1972, Janet Iffland, 1987.

• Louis Stettner and Barbara Einzig, Louis Stettner's New York 1950s–1990s, Rizzoli.

• Louis Stettner, Penn Station, New York, Thames & Hudson, 2015. Publisher · Libraries

• Louis Stettner, Louis Stettner, Thames & Hudson, 2025. Publisher · Libraries

• Louis Stettner, Clément Chéroux and Sally Martin Katz, Louis Stettner: Traveling Light, Cernunnos, 2019. Publisher · Libraries

Jane Evelyn Atwood | Around Pigalle

• Jane Evelyn Atwood, Pigalle People, 1978-1979, Le Bec en L'Air, 2018 (in French and English). Publisher · Libraries

• Jane Evelyn Atwood, Rue des Lombards, Editions Xavier Barral, 2011. Libraries

• Catherine Chaine, Jane Evelyn Atwood, Actes Sud, 2010 (in French). Publisher · Libraries

• Jane Evelyn Atwood and Lyonel Trouillot, Haïti, Actes Sud, 2008 (in French). Publisher · Libraries

Jean Hermanson | The Celestial Darkroom

• Jean Hermanson and Arvid Rundberg, Byggnadsarbetare, Svenska byggnadsarbetareförbundet and Rabén & Sjögren, 1969.

• Jean Hermanson and Folke Isaksson, Dom svarta – en bok om gjuteriarbetare i Sverige, Bonniers, 1970.

• Jean Hermanson and Folke Isaksson, Nere på verkstadsgolvet – en bok om metallarbetare, Stiftelsen Litteraturfrämjandet, 1971.

• Jenny Lindhe and Nils Petter Löfstedt (eds.), Jean Hermanson och Dublins barn – det första och sista arbetet, Landskrona Foto, 2016.

• Nils Petter Löfstedt and Jenny Maria Nilsson (eds.), Himlens mörkrum – fotografier av Jean Hermanson, 70/70 Bokförlag, 2018.

Online

Willy Ronis, Self-Portrait of a Photographer

• The Photographer Who Saw Paris With His Heart in His Eyes, The New York Times, 2018 (paid access).

• Willy Ronis obituary, Amanda Hopkinson, The Guardian, 2009.

Sabine Weiss: One Century of Photography

• Sabine Weiss, website (in French).

• Sabine Weiss × Nathalie Boutté, exhibition, Photo Elysée, 2024 (in French).

• Women In Motion, à la rencontre de Sabine Weiss, Kering, video, YouTube, 2020 (in French).

• Sabine Weiss, AWARE Archives of Women Artists (in French).

Louis Stettner | In Memory’s Light

• Louis Stettner Estate, website.

• Exhibition: 'Louis Stettner' at Fundación MAPFRE, Art Blart, 2023.

Jane Evelyn Atwood | Around Pigalle

• Jane Evelyn Atwood, website.

• Jane Evelyn Atwood : « J'ai tout appris au 19 rue des Lombards : la patience, l'écoute, l'instinct et ça peut te sauver la vie », Arnaud Laporte, podcast, France Culture, 2020 (in French).

• Jane Evelyn Atwood, Agence VU'.

• Interview with Jane Evelyn Atwood, Leica Oskar Barnack Award, 2017.

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