Look at all these masterpieces! What will happen to them tomorrow? There is no way to tell. The City of Paris wants to shut down the legendary Roger Viollet Agency it inherited in 1985, following the murder of the owner by her husband and the suicide of the latter in prison. There is a popular French song that goes, Everything is just fine, no problems at all, words repeated by a servant to the lady of the house, to minimize the news of one disaster after another. Something occurred to me this morning: the sale of Magnum agency to investors, the announced closure of Roger Viollet, and the progressive, permanent impoverishment of photographers, and photojournalists in particular—the acceleration of the transformation of our world is staggering! Signing a petition seems grotesque and pointless. How can we replace the State or the City Council that are broke, withdrawn, and whiny? Here lies the true challenge!
Jean-Jacques Naudet
