Jacques Chirac, sleeping mask over his eyes, in slippers in a Concorde. Brigitte Bardot and Serge Gainsbourg in the darkness of a studio, ready to engrave Bonnie and Clyde in memories. The Beatles adjusting their ties before a show. These legendary images of Paris Match come out of the archives during an auction this Friday in the capital – not a first for the photo shock magazine.
“Each photo tells a story. Opening the archives is like opening little drawers full of secrets,” enthuses Marc Brincourt, long-time photo editor of the weekly, for which he is the eye of memory. He knows secrets. Over 38 years, he saw the construction of a unique iconographic collection, which today includes 15 million images.
At Artcurial, numbered prints are put up for auction. Not originals, of course. The latter sleep in the magazine's “bunker”, a room sheltered from light, where such silence reigns that Roger Thérond, legendary director of Paris Match, described this place of conservation as a “cathedral”. The prints on sale were produced by Picto, a prestigious Parisian laboratory. “Black and white is great art, developed the old-fashioned way by Thomas Consani, an elite shooter. The result is stunning: deep blacks, dazzling contrasts. »
From Chirac to Bardot
The images chosen by Marc Brincourt embody the DNA of Paris Match : proximity to adults. Politicians, artists, cinema or sports stars, all reveal themselves in rare moments. Take Jacques Chirac, aboard Concorde, en route to New Caledonia in 1987 – Artcurial's estimate of the print of this photo ranges between 4,800 and 5,500 euros. “Behind the sleeping mask, there is an ordinary man, despite his 37 hours of flight and 44,000 kilometers traveled. That's it, Paris Match : show the giants in their humanity. »
Another key image, Brigitte Bardot and Serge Gainsbourg in the studio, in 1967 – photo estimated between 4,200 and 5,200 euros. “Bardot was “the” star of Match. She described herself as “the little fiancée of the newspaper”. At the headquarters of the weekly at the time, rue Pierre-Charron, in Paris, near the Champs Elysées, BB often came to take refuge, escaping hordes of fans. “She fell asleep on a couch or danced on the big editorial table with a glass of champagne. And no one photographed her. Out of respect. »
“At the time, the stars trusted us”
But how to choose the photos up for auction, among millions? “Thanks to my memory,” smiles Marc Brincourt. A flawless visual memory, nourished by years of exploring contact sheets, following publications, even special editions. He remembers everything: the light of a shot, the anecdote behind a pose. Alain Delon in Venice, for example, photographed by Jack Garofalo in 1962. In this image, a pigeon seems perfectly synchronized with the actor. “Garofalo had placed bird seed on his lens to attract the animal. »
Behind the legendary photos of Paris Matchexceptional photographers. Jack Garofalo, Claude Azoulay, Willy Rizzo, and even Gérard Géry, who immortalized Bardot in Mexico in 1965, during the filming of Long live Mary ! “These photographers were extraordinary storytellers. They lived a thousand adventures before triggering. » Today, this type of complicity seems to be a thing of the past. “At the time, the stars trusted us. No need for agents or lawyers to frame their image. With Match, there was a pact of respect. We never betrayed them. »
With the auctions at Artcurial, Paris Match looks back: the faces of Bardot, Gainsbourg, Deneuve, Delon, Belmondo, Bowie, Mohamed Ali, Nadal, de Gaulle, Chirac, Mitterrand, Pompidou, Kennedy, but also the Paris of the years 1950, May 1968, Harlem and the Bronx in the 1970s, the Berlin Wall… The 80 lots are much more than photos: both witnesses of an era and testimonies of a privileged relationship between photographers and their subjects.
