In December 1966, four photographers, Hubert Henrotte, Raymond Depardon, Hugues Vassal, Léonard de Raemy and a salesperson, Jean Monteux decided, adventurously, to launch an agency on the basis of 50:50. The photographers, shareholders or colleagues would share half of the sales of their assignments and half of the production costs.
Five months later, Gilles Caron joined the young staff and made a name for himself among the editorial teams as one of the best photojournalist.
In the same way it was he who very quickly gave Gamma its kudos.
Nearly 50 years later, François Lochon one of the photographers and shareholder, took over the archives from Gamma and the other agencies that had gone into voluntary liquidation, Gamma opened its first exhibition on 50 years of a photography that it had largely created, that of action and magazine photojournalism. The place chosen for this first? the other side of the world, in a country in the throes of political change: in Burma (Myanmar). The occasion? The Yangon Photo Festival, presided over by Aung San Suu Kyi, and directed by its creator, Christophe Loviny.
From Caron to Salgado, from Van der Stock to Raphael Gaillarde, the 50 photos selected and printed on site showed, until March 31st, an excellent panorama of those 50 years. Thousands of Burmese discovered an agency with which they were not really familiar and whose quality and diversity of subject surprised the talented local photographers ,who in turn during evening projections in the open air surprised an international jury.
INFORMATION
8th Festival Photo de Yangon
March 12 – 31, 2016
340, Pyay Road, Sanchaung Township
Yangon, Myanmar
http://www.yangonphoto.com
http://www.gamma-rapho.com/fr
http://www.facebook.com/yangonphotofestival
