Rétrospective Rajak Ohanian

The retrospective exhibition of Rajak Ohanian (1933 - 2023) presents a vast journey through his photographic work at the headquarters of the French Communist Party (PCF), Place du Colonel-Fabien in Paris.

The exhibition is produced by The Black Shelter/Fonds Rajak Ohanian and Libres comme l’art, with the support of Médiathèque du Patrimoine and Photography (MPP).

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The Espace Niemeyer celebrates the bicentenary of photography

The Espace Niemeyer, in the heart of the popular districts of Paris, Place du Colonel Fabien, opens its doors to photography on the occasion of the bicentenary.

With the support of « Libres comme l’art », in charge of promoting the cultural heritage linked to the history of the PCF, the exceptional building in the Place du Colonel Fabien , designed by Oscar Niemeyer in the heart of Paris to become the national headquarters of the PCF in the years 70, opens today to all the arts, with a regular program of concerts, exhibitions...

From September 2026 to September 2027, the program of the place will make a large place to photography, with as a highlight an exceptional exhibition dedicated to the photographer Rajak Ohanian, disappeared on 6 November 2023.

The events already scheduled are:

Autumn 2026: strong presence of photography in the exhibition « 1936-2026, the world in questions ». Contemporary artists question the world of today by dialoguing with the memory of artistic and political events of 1936.

March to June 2027: first national retrospective of the photographer Rajak Ohanian, disappeared in 2023.

Born in 1933 and died on 6 November 2023 to 90 years, Rajak Ohanian marked the history of photography with a deeply humanist commitment and work.

Son of survivors of the Armenian genocide, Rajak Ohanian, born in Lyon, begins his work as a stage photographer with Roger Planchon. Twenty years of collaboration with opera and theatre figures followed: Marcel Maréchal, Patrick Chéreau, Jean Dasté, Armand Gatti.

All his life, his photography will show the faces of work and creation: in the rural world (Portrait of a village, 1978) in Sainte-Colombe-en-Auxois, in an art textile SME in Lyon where they photograph the 32 factory workers in front of their creations; or among the miners.

As a citizen of the world in love with the universal, he travels the planet and brings back exceptional photographs of New York, Algiers, and especially of Chicago and Aleppo, where his work will cross the memory of the genocide, not to mention his work on his brothers, the Gitans de Décines and Saintes-Marie-de-la-mer.

The work of Rajak Ohanian has been the subject of an important deposit in the National Archives

The retrospective of his photographic work could not find a better place of welcome than espace Niemeyer, place of Colonel Fabien, for a journey always renewed alongside the arts, work, cultures and memories mingled with the world.

- In project: event around cinema and photography in collaboration with CinéArchives