Le Bec en l’Air : Roger Schall, un précurseur

I had seen this book on the table of its publisher, Le Bec en l’Air, at the last Paris Photo, a few days before its official release. Since then, the publisher has sent me some photographs taken from the book and a copy, in PDF format, of the book. It is therefore from these elements alone that I will evoke the photographic images of Roger Schall, one of the great photographers of the twentieth century.

The title of the book, which presents this author as a precursor, seems to me to be poorly adapted in light of the works left by the photographer and taking into account the history of photography. I think that the term hinge corresponds much better to the work and creativity of René, in his professional and personal environment. Why hinge? On a technical level, the young reporter can take into account the revolution of portable equipment (Rollei and Leica) which replaced the heavy, still cumbersome cameras. And above all, it benefited from the arrival of films with successive shots which replaced the film plans with a much more complex handling, both during the shooting and in the laboratory. It is the first fact of this mutation which engendered by the same token an intellectual transfer on the use of photography. The notion of immobility and faithful report, of a determined moment, which had to be respected, as much for portraits, still lifes and landscapes, throughout the nineteenth century, faded. Technical constraints followed the same path and the appearance of semi-portable cameras and the first travel cameras offered the first freedoms of movement. The photographs taken in the trenches during the First World War confirmed this situation at the beginning of the last century. Movement and expression were invited into the design, production and restitution through the photographic moment. This was the birth of photographic messages that offered impressions and emotions to their readers. Roger was just present, cameras in his hands, during this change. He knew perfectly how to move from one world to another, taking great care to preserve the “canons” of composition and luminosity essential to the transmission of information. But, he also brought all the new elements that aroused a differentiated reading and generated emotions related to the coherence of the image. Roger plunged into  improbable angles of shooting, from high angle shot to low angle shot, from the interiority to the opening. Roger juggled with the renderings of light, from masses of the deepest blacks to the ranges of gray harmoniously distributed by the uncertainties. Roger interpreted the role of the contrasts that bring true meanings to the pictorial discourse, to the point of completely modifying the message for a few seconds of exposure to sunlight or processing.

The hinge that he negotiated so well in the middle of the century.  Made him one of the major standard-bearers of reportage photography that became essential from the 1960s, until the end of the last century. I must add that his various collections also include photographic studies, fashion images, portraits, winks, photographics. It is obvious that this excellent generalist perfectly represented a good part of the photographers of the century who knew how to do everything with a creativity that leaves exceptional images.

To return to this book that I highly recommend, I would have liked a few more photographs, which are essential and sufficient to appreciate their author. A little less text, often not very useful to appreciate the quintessence of the work. I have frequently noticed in exhibitions that very narrative biographies and photographs exhibited together disrupt each other. The layout of this beautiful work somewhat accentuates the confusion of simultaneous reading of the image and the text. The very large sections devoted to photographic images alone are a real bible of Roger Schall’s photography, after 1930, not numerous enough, because one never tires of them.

Thierry Maindrault

the book has been available since November of 2024

Roger Schall, un précurseur
Le Bec en l’Air
208 pages
175 black and white photographs
size 23,5 x 29 cm
hard cover
ISBN 978-2-36744-195-5
44.00 euros + shipping costs

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