Since its beginnings, photography has recorded the history of the world. Technical developments have allowed photographers to produce more accurate accounts of history, however fleeting it may be. Newspapers used photographs before the invention of their animated competitor, the television, making photography an indispensable source of information. With the evolving processes of the taking, reproduction and diffusion of photographs, the press developed in less than a century an economic model for photography, and its archives tell the story of both the world and the medium.
Following in the footsteps Le Figaro, Life and other publications around the world, the International Herald Tribune opened its archives to the public on the occasion of its 125th anniversary. It was a way for the historic paper to respond to the tidal wave of Internet. These archives are accessible through the IHT Print Store, which allows users to search the paper’s entire history. The Tribune also unearthed and digitized a large number of photographs, many of them emblematic of an era, a selection of which will be on view at Paris Photo as part of the exhibition at France-Amériques and with an auction at the Hôtel Drouot. A look through these images and how they were cropped and used in the paper show the evolution on how information has been processed. What comes through is eurocentric and biased it is an invitation to put events in perspective, something that the Web gives us today all around the world.
Laurence Cornet
Exhibition
Les archives de l’International Herald Tribune
From October 31st to November 12th, 2012
France-Amériques – salle Franklin
9, avenue Franklin Roosevelt
75008 Paris – France
Auction :
Exhibition Novembre 17th-18th, 2012
Hotel Drouot – salle 15
9, rue Drouot
75009 Paris – France
