What is Photography’s Future at Charenton?
Near the Fort de Saint Cyr, the Charenton site will soon welcome the Médiathèque de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine. This ongoing project is being overseen by Manuel Bamberger. The opening is scheduled for 2014. The site will host not only the archives of the Médiathèque and ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites), but also an exceptionally rich photography collection with the offices and archives of the Donation Jacques-Henri Lartigue.
Beginning with the first work commissioned by the Missions Héliographiques in 1851, a program established in 1837 to classify, protect and restore French landmarks, the State became responsible for preserving a collection of photographs. This is how the archives of the Médiathèque came together, forming a rich and diverse collection.
In more recent times, the association Patrimoine Photographique received around fifteen donations of the archives of differents artists, bringing together negatives, prints and personal documents. The association was dissolved in 2004 and its archives were transferred to Fort de Saint-Cyr.
Since 2008, the plan has been for the Médiathèque to leave its Parisian site and move into a new building in Charenton, which is large enough (about 7000m² of usable space) to preserve and present the photographic collection. The space reserved for photography at Charenton can accommodate the prints and documents from the donations, which currently represent 90% of the consultation requests.
The Médiathèque is supported by a network of institutions, which together have found ways to accommodate and preserve all of these prestigious archives, which otherwise would have risked being scattered or destroyed.
Read the full article on the French version of Le Journal.
