The first time I ever went to the Paris Salon de la Photo was in 1976. At the time I worked as a technician and photographer for the Société Lumière / Ilford in St Priest where I’d been employed for five years.
This was the golden age of the beautiful black-and-white silver gelatin print, the kind your eye lingers over, although the power of color photography was already on the rise, most notably attracting professional photographers with the famous Cibachrome process.
From that point on, I visited the Salon de la Photo five times: in 1980, 1981, 2011, 2013, and this year. Over the years, I was able to observe the evolution of technology and the trends of the moment. For a long time, it was a place where established professional photographers as well as independent photographers enjoyed getting together: it gave them an opportunity to talk techniques, business, and above all it was an occasion to keep up to date with the latest products released on the market and officially presented at the Salon.
Full article is available in french version of L’Oeil de la Photographie.
