In November 1961, for the first time, photo reporters met in Grenoble on the initiative of Robert Bruyère, Aimé Mollard and Georges Richard.
An association was created on January 10, 1962 in Montélimar.
The National Association of Journalists Reporters Photographers experienced national growth through the active presence of Hubert Henrotte and Roger Pic.
Its founders regularly sit in the National Union of Journalists (SNJ) to assert the specific rights of reporters photographers, new beneficiaries of the status of journalists (created in 1935).
In the 1960s, the ANJRP brought together a number of personalities: Jean Lattès, Robert Doisneau, Éric Schwab, Jean Pottier, Janine Niépce, Jacques Windenberger, Gérald Bloncourt, Willy Ronis, Georges Pierre, Claude Azoulay, André Sas, Jean-Pierre Rey, Léonard de Raemy, Raymond Depardon, Marc Riboud, Serge Gautier, Jean-Pierre Rey, Hervé Gloaguen, Jean Dieuzaide and shines in all regions.
In 1969 at the initiative of Roger Pic, the ANJRP became the ANJRPC in order to integrate the “Filmmakers” who covered current affairs.
The recent access of photo reporters to the status of journalist was spreading and the Cressard law (July 1974) dedicated to freelancers offered a professional identity to the entire community of press reporters.
The last three decades of the twentieth century consecrated the role of the ANJRPC, a benchmark association. The ANJRPC is regularly associated by journalists’ unions in joint negotiations or discussions. Most of the leaders of the Anjrpc are also members of journalists’ unions, where they campaign in large numbers for the SNJ and the SNJ-CGT.
This partnership makes it possible to better assert the rights of the increasingly numerous photojournalists to work as freelance.
The ANJRPC participates in a number of debates that agitate the profession, particularly in matters of social protection and copyright
In the years 1980-90, the main animators of the ANJRPC alongside Roger Pic were: Jean-Pierre Leloir (Secretary general), Paul Almásy and Gérard Bousquet (Treasurers), members of Magnum including Guy Le Querrec, Martine Franck, Jean Gaumy, Sebastião Salgado, Luc Delahaye and Patrick Zachmann, Horace, Patrick Bard, Georges Lévêque, Marcel Lorre, Magdeleine Bonnamour, Charlie Abad, Gilles Codina, Carlos Muñoz-Yagüe, Pierre Ciot, Thomas Haley, Philippe Bachelier (current President of the ‘UPP), alumni including Jacques Windenberger, Serge Gautier, Jean Pottier, Jean Ribière, Georges Azenstark, Gisèle Freund (President), Marc Riboud, Robert Doisneau, Georges Bendrihem (to whom we owe the famous Ben’s book), Gérard -Aimé and Henri Cartier-Bresson.
In the early 2000s, the ANJRPC merged with the Freelens association and then merged into its union the Union of Professional Photographers (UPP), which succeeded the Union of Creative Photographers (UPC).
Symbolically the disappearance of its historical figure, Roger Pic (September 15, 1920 – December 3, 2001) marked the end of the collective adventure of the ANJRPC and the beginning of a new era, that of digital, which changed the physiognomy of ‘a profession with constantly changing contours.
In 2021, press photographers, who are also present in the cultural and publishing sector, remain active within the UPP in the Photojournalist commission.
Christian Ducasse
First published on February 16, 2021 on Michel Puech’s website a-l-oeil.info
http://www.a-l-oeil.info/blog/
