This image is taken from Michel Setboun’s third book about agencies. Eighty reporters were chosen to comment on one iconic image taken during their careers. The image we’re publishing today is a picture by Vincent Leloup.
After the collapse of communism, pollution in Eastern countries became a global concern. I discussed it with Figaro Magazine, who offered to send me to Copșa Mică, Romania, one of the most polluted cities in the world. I arrived on site after crossing the Carpathians in Dacia. The streets were covered with black soot. So were the sheep, and the children leaving school. It was snack time. The city was covered with black smoke and a toxic substance released by the zinc factories. The companies said it was all harmless, and everybody went about like everything was fine, hanging their laundry and planting their gardens. This photograph also marks the end of Collectif Presse, an agency founded in 1981 by young photographers. It was a wonderful time. Newspapers like Libération and Figaro Magazine devoted ample room to photography. Paris was the capital of photojournalism and Americans spent fortunes on our work. The years 1985-1986 were the golden age of the agency.
