Michel Puech’s excellent article on the scandal surrounding the disappearance of the Sygma archives in his weekly magazine Dredi!
The Paris Judicial Court has handed down a truly astonishing ruling, dismissing all the claims of Dominique Aubert, the former photographer of the Sygma press agency, to recover or gain access to his photographic archives. this ruling goes beyond the Aubert case, and concerns France photo‑journalistic heritage of the last century.
On November 21, 2025, President Irène Barnac, assisted by Alix Fleuriet, Vice President, and Judge Arthur Courillon-Havy, constituting the court of the 2nd section of the 3rd chamber of the Judicial Court of Paris, dismissed Dominique Aubert, a photojournalist with the Sygma press agency, now Corbis Sygma, of his requests to recover or access the thousand or so reportages he produced at the risk of his life between 1983 and 1995.
According to our information, this ruling appears to bring to a close more than fifteen years of various proceedings, all aimed at shedding light on one of the biggest scandals concerning the photographic heritage of the Sygma press agency. Thanks to the persistence of this former photojournalist, we hoped to gain some insight into the fate of the Sygma archives, which fell into the assets of the Corbis-Sygma bankruptcy.
At the hearing on September 19, none of the lawyers representing Getty Images, BTSG, or Maître Gorrias deigned to answer our questions. The companies Locarchives and Unity Glory International, a subsidiary of Visual China Group, were not represented. We learned nothing about the liquidator’s maneuvers, nothing about the contracts between BTSG, Corbis, Getty, and the Chinese companies. Nothing, because all the opposing parties simply claimed that they knew nothing about the fate of Aubert’s photos and that Aubert was bringing a frivolous lawsuit against Maître Gorrias, the liquidator!
For Jean-Philippe Hugot, Aubert‘s lawyer, for Dominique Aubert, and, let’s be honest, for us, it seemed that the judges had a good grasp of the case and optimism prevailed. Alas, the judgment stunned Dominique Aubert and his lawyer, both of whom, to this day, seem to find it unreasonable to appeal.
“50 million documents, 800 square meters of archive space, 7,000 linear meters, more than 10,000 photographers and contributors” [1]
https://www.loeildelinfo.fr/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/video-sygma-initiative-by-corbis.mp4?_=1
“The project to digitize it by Corbis began in 200219. Sygma falls under the department “Collections & Photographers” and The Sygma Preservation and Access Initiative20 began in 2004″ Excerpt from a video copy of the clip broadcast on Youtube but inaccessible today.
To grasp what is at stake for this heritage, it should be recalled that, when they created the Gamma agency in 1966, Hubert Henrotte (1934–2020), Raymond Depardon, Gilles Caron (1939–1970), Léonard de Raemy (1924–2000) and Jean Monteux opened a period often described as the “golden age of French photojournalism”. The Gamma agency gave rise to Sygma (1973–2010) and to a third competitor, the Sipa Press agency. These three press agencies took up the torch and the archives of Dalmas (1956–1967), Reporters Associés (1954–1971) and Apis (1961–1973) agencies which, in the post‑war period, had inaugurated a new style of photographic reportage, breaking with Anglo‑Saxon traditions and with the French tradition of studio photography. The Gamma archives are today distributed by the Gamma‑Rapho agency, created in 2010. As for Sipa Press, it is still active on the press‑photography market.
The photographic archives of Sygma, which for thirty years was the world market leader in press photography supplying the largest illustrated magazines, were split into two parts by the bankruptcy of Corbis Sygma in May 2010.
The first group, consisting of photographers from Sygma (fewer than a thousand) who were under contract under US law with Bill Gates‘ parent company Corbis Corporation, was not affected by the court settlement. However, their contracts were transferred on January 22, 2024, by Corbis Corporation to Unity Glory International, a subsidiary of VCG, and the rights to use the images outside China were transferred to Getty Images. All of this was done with complete opacity. Thank you, Bill Gates!
The other part of Sygma‘s photographic heritage, involving thousands of photographers and probably millions of images, has, as a result of the judicial liquidation of Corbis Sygma, became an asset of the bankrupt company, along with the offices, chairs, and coffee machines… In 2010, these assets were entrusted to the liquidator Maître Gorrias and the company BTSG to compensate priority creditors and recover their fees.
It is therefore indisputable that the photographs of Dominique Aubert, a photographer employed by Sygma, were part of this batch of assets! And this is what the latest ruling in the Aubert case denies!
However, to fully understand the problem posed by this photographic heritage, it is important to note that photographers had only three months to assert their rights with the liquidator; yet the thousands of photographers who worked for Sygma as freelancers were based all over the world. They may have changed addresses several times and not received the information. At L’Œil de l’info, we have been contacted several times by photographers who, through a random Google search, discovered the bankruptcy of Corbis Sygma (and other agencies) by reading our articles, sometimes five or ten years after the fact! However, under French copyright law, even if the medium, the film, is not his property, the author retains moral and economic rights.
“Stéphane Gorrias, the man behind the scenes”
When Maître Gorrias was appointed by the commercial court as the liquidator of Corbis-Sygma, he was already a star in the courtroom. “He is part of a generation that has managed to shake up the profession,” lawyer Guilhem Brémond told journalist Camille Neveux of the Journal Du Dimanche in 2014. She writes: “In his office, companies are all given code names, such as ‘goldfish’ or ‘pink panther’. “This is to preserve their confidentiality,” smiles the judicial administrator. And, no doubt, to bring a little lightheartedness to a daily life that is not so… rosy.“ Stéphane Gorrias is the ”man in the shadows” who enters a company’s life at the worst possible moment: that of judicial liquidation.
Fifteen years ago, the liquidator didn’t know what to do with the enormous stock of images stored by Corbis in Garnay(Eure) at Locarchives. No one wanted them… The BNF said no, the Ministry of Culture remained silent. What to do with them? Maître Gorrias was at a loss when we asked him at the time.
The ruling of November 21 explains that “Getty Images argues that the works for which restitution (or access) is sought are not identified,” even though Dominique Aubert provided a complete list of his thousand reports. The ruling adds that Getty Images “does not hold or exploit the physical media of the works, as it has been noted by a bailiff.”
That may be clear, but it does not specify the fate of Aubert’s photographs or the rest of the Sygma archives. However, like all Sygma photos, Aubert’s were—are?—stored in Garnay by the former company Locarchives. When Corbis was sold to the Chinese, this stock was transferred – under opaque conditions – to Getty Images. And this stock consisted of both photos under Corbis Inc. contracts sold to the Chinese and photos under the responsibility of the liquidator of Corbis-Sygma. Getty must therefore have some insight into the contents of this stock and its management in Garnay!
In summary: Dominique Aubert, who is attempting to recover his photographic reportages, has acted too late and, to top it all off, has made vague requests despite presenting a complete list of his reports. In fact, Aubert cannot prove who is depriving him of his property or where his photographs are. The innocent cannot prove his innocence, and is therefore guilty.
Logically, having lost the case, Aubert should have been ordered to pay the legal fees of the parties he sued… But no! The court “rejects the claims of Getty Images, BTSG, and Maître Gorrias under Article 700 of the Code of Civil Procedure.”
This generosity sounds like an admission. As Judge Renaud van Ruymbeke told the photographers at the time, we know who the bad guys are, but rendering a fair judgment for Aubert would have meant too many financial complications.
Indeed, only Dominique Aubert has had the courage—and the means—to pursue his legal action, had he won, he would likely have inspired many others to follow suit!
There are photographers in the shadows who were just waiting for Aubert to win so they could rush into the breach, and too many American and Chinese companies who feared it. Not to mention a liquidator who was too powerful to be challenged.
We will therefore never know the fate of a significant part of the French photographic heritage of the agency that was, for thirty years, the world leader in press photography!
Michel Puech
Honorary journalist, publisher of L’oeil de l’info
Honorary journalist (Press card no. 29 349), publisher
Notes
[1] Quotation from « Le Fonds Sygma exploité par Corbis. Une autre histoire du photojournalisme » by Audrey Leblanc and Sébastien Dupuy – October 2017
[2] L’Oeil de l’info will continue its investigation in an attempt to understand what has happened to the Sygma archives. We will gladly welcome any testimonies and the documents that may reach us by clicking HERE.
First published in DREDI
The weekly of www.loeildelinfo.fr
