CAPA TARO CHIM. Carnets d'Espagne (1936-1939)

The Archives nationales present an exhibition and source edition of the photograph albums of Robert Capa, Gerda Taro, and David "Chim" Seymour, held by the institution since 1952 among the holdings of the Direction de la Sûreté (Ministry of the Interior). Pasted onto eight school exercise books, the 4650 contact prints come from reportages produced by the three photographers in Spain during the Civil War (November 1936-June 1937, October 1938-January 1939). Recent work by the institution made it possible to attribute the photographs to each photographer, describe them, and quantify the views for which no other record (negatives or prints) exists in public or private collections.

These images represent a precious and substantial contribution to the understanding of the work of the three photographers. While Capa's work is unsurprisingly the most represented (45 reportages, approximately 3,050 shots), Taro's, over a short period from February to July 1937, is substantial (17 reportages, approximately 1,050 shots). Chim stands out for the originality of the composition of the single notebook containing his reportages (approximately 350 shots). The rarity and uniqueness of the images also stem from the fact that the contact prints complement the rediscovered negatives of the "Mexican suitcase". Three-quarters (3,500) of the contacts in the notebooks have lost their negatives, and among these, fewer than five hundred are indexed online in the International Center of Photography catalogue, where most of the work of Capa, Taro, and Chim is preserved.

This exhibition provides an opportunity to give these rare images the visibility and recognition they deserve. It will offer visitors the chance to discover, at the Hôtel de Soubise, the tangible reality of the eight original notebooks through the exploration of their history, composition, and use.