I saw this book on its publisher's table, Le Bec en l’Airduring the last Paris Photo, a few days before its official release. Since then, the publisher has sent me some photographs taken from the book and a copy, in PDF format, of this book. It is therefore from these elements alone that I will evoke, the photographic images of Roger Schallone of the great photographers of the twentieth century.
The title of the work, which presents this author as a precursor, seems to me to be ill-suited to the works left by the photographer and taking into account the history of photography. I think the term hinge corresponds much better to René's work and creativity, in his professional and personal environment. Why hinge? On a technical level, the young reporter can take into account the revolution in portable equipment (Rollei and Leica) which replaces heavy cameras which are still cumbersome. And above all, it benefits, at the same time, from the arrival of films with successive shots which replace film shots which are much more complex to handle, both during shooting and in the laboratory. It is a first fact of this mutation which generated – thereby – an intellectual transfer on the use of photography. The notion of immobility and faithful reporting, of a specific moment, which had to be respected, both for portraits, still lifes and other landscapes, throughout the nineteenth century, is fading. Technical constraints follow the same path and the appearance of semi-portable rooms and the first travel devices offer the first freedoms of movement. Photographs taken in the trenches of the First World War confirm this situation at the beginning of the last century. Movement and expression are involved in the design, production and restitution through the photographic moment. This is the birth of photographic messages which offer impressions and emotions to their readers. Roger just happens to be present, the devices in his hands, during this mutation. He will perfectly know how to move from one world to others, taking great care to preserve the “canons” of composition and luminosity essential to the transmission of information. But it will also bring all these new elements which provoke a differentiated reading and generate emotions relating to the coherence of the image. Roger rushes into these improbable camera angles, from high angle to low angle, from interiority to openness. Roger juggles with renderings of light, from masses of the deepest blacks to ranges of grays harmoniously distributed by uncertainties. Roger interprets the role of contrasts which bring true meaning to the pictorial discourse, to the point of completely modifying the message for a few seconds of exposure or development.
This hinge that he negotiated so well in the middle of the century. It made him one of the major flag bearers for the installation of this reportage photography which became essential from the 1960s until the end of this century. I must add that its various collections also include photographic studies, fashion images, portraits, winks, photo-graphics. It is obvious that this excellent generalist perfectly represents a good part of the photographers of this century who knew how to do everything with a creativity that leaves exceptional images.
To return to this book which I highly recommend, I would have liked a few more photographs which are so essential and sufficient to appreciate their author. A little fewer texts, often not very useful for appreciating the quintessence of the work. I have frequently noticed in exhibitions that the very narrative biographies and the photographs exhibited together disrupt each other. The layout of this beautiful work somewhat accentuates this confusion of simultaneous reading of the image and the text. The very large parts devoted solely to photographic images are a real bible of Roger Schall's photography, after 1930, not numerous enough, because we never tire of them.
Thierry Maindrault
the book has been available since the end of November 2024
Roger Schall, a pioneer
Le Bec en l’Air
208 pages
175 black & white photographs
format 23,5 cm x 29 cm
hardback binding
ISBN 978-2-36744-195-5
44.00 euros + shipping costs
all bookstores
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