Photography Exhibition Galerie Roger-Viollet – Alain Adler, Cinema photography on a set

From April 6, the Galerie Roger-Viollet in Paris will present an exhibition devoted to the work of Alain Adler.

Alain Adler (1923-1997) was born in Hungary to a Jewish family that immigrated to Paris in the 1930s. He joined the Resistance at the age of 19, in 1942, by joining the FTP-Moi and then FFI networks. After the Liberation, he became a journalist, writing for the magazine Renouveau. Very quickly, to complete his articles, he turned to photography and was sent to report on film sets. He then collaborates with magazines such as l’Avant- garde, Ciné-Révélation and Regards, where photography and the 7th art hold a predominant place.

Of Alain Adler’s work, only the period from 1954 to 1964 remains, a decade rich in productions, where the New Wave emerges in the wake of and in opposition to the classic post-war cinema.
The emblematic stars of the moment or in the making, parade in front of the photographer’s lens, Jean Seberg, Brigitte Bardot, Anna Karina, Bernadette Laffont, Corinne Marchand, Jean Gabin, Alain Delon, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Jean-Claude Brialy, Jean-Paul Belmondo…

Alain Adler works mainly during the downtime of the shootings. The set is in place, but the actors are “off” and have somehow become a bit themselves, having abandoned their filmic characters for a break.

Alain Adler is not a set photographer, he is a photographer on a set.
The black and white and the systematic 6X6 square format of his images bring a touch of his own, a stance that transfigures the usual vision of 35mm or CinemaScope films.
From La traversée de Paris (Claude Autant-Lara) to A bout de souffle (Jean-Luc Godard), Alain Adler’s work during these ten years is a formidable testimony, that of French cinema in full mutation. The 12,000 film photos that remain from Alain Adler’s career were acquired by the Roger-Viollet agency in 1990.

Developed in collaboration with Guillaume Adler, the photographer’s nephew, this exhibition presents, from April 6 to June 24, 2023, more than 80 limited edition and numbered contemporary prints.

Alain Adler, la photographie de cinéma sur un plateau
From April 6 to June 24, 2023
Roger-Viollet Gallery
6 rue de Seine 75006 Paris
Tuesday to Saturday, 11am to 7pm Free admission