A photo agency is a succession of exchanges and know-how working together to give the greatest visibility to photographs. Each agency has its own identity: by its relationship with the photographers it represents, by its editorial line, its mode of operation and its business model.
At the dawn of the 2000s, a technological revolution has upset the balance. Silver photography was replaced by an entirely immaterial and digital process, from the taking of the picture to its processing and exploitation. To this first technological mutation was added the arrival of the Internet and the appearance of a now globalized competition.
Photographic agencies had to find innovative solutions to promote their work and protect the rights of photographers. And the result is palpable: never before has photography been so well diffused, demonstrating the richness of production despite an uncertain economy.
Directed by Anaïck Bourhis, the documentary series Révélateur portrays a professional and artistic environment in full mutation while perpetuating a certain idea of auteur photography. Each episode follows photographers in the field, from the Cannes Festival to the intimacy of a photo lab, while pushing the door of photo agencies to follow the path of their photographs. These episode reveals the creative relationship between the photographers and the agency’s editorial team.
Discover these univers through some short excerpts, taken from each episode:
The AFP Agency
With Zakaria Abdelkhafi, Patrick Baz, Georges Gobet, Olivier Morin, Anne-Christine Poujoulat, Joël Saget.
The Hemis Agency
With Bertrand Gardel, Patrice Hauser, Ludovic Maisant, Camille Moirenc.
The Roger-Viollet Agency
With Janine Niepce.
The Signatures Agency
With Patrick Bard, Sophie Brändström, Arno Brignon, Florence Brochoire, Eric Facon, Mathieu Farcy, Jérémie Jung, Xavier Lambours, Florence Levillain, Laurent Monlaü, Bernard Plossu.
The Tendance Floue Agency
With Gilles Coulon, Olivier Culmann, Ljubisa Danilovic, Grégoire Eloy, Mat Jacob, Yohanne Lamoulère, Bertrand Meunier, Meyer, Flore-Aël Surun, Patrick Tournebœuf.
The Vu’ Agency
With photographers Denis Dailleux, Richard Dumas, Maia Flore, Cyril Zannettacci.
Révélateurs
Directed by Anaïck Bourhis
A France Télévision – Museum Tv and Sancho & C° co-production © September 2020
The whole series will be available in a superb DVD collection on November 12th.
The whole series can also be viewed online.
