In 1975, two young photographers set off to explore what was happening behind the scenes at France’s satirical magazine Hara-Kiri. Arnaud Baumann andXavier Lambours followed the editorial team and the many fascinating figures in the entourage of the two leading personalities, Professor Choron and François Cavanna, who founded the first Charlie Hebdo. The duo, nicknamed Lambau, recorded birthday celebrations, practical jokes, and editorial meetings, and took portrait shots of such brilliant provocateurs as Gébé, Wolinski, Cabu, Willem and Reiser. It was the heyday for outrageous and challenging journalism enjoying true freedom of expression. After ten years without Charlie Hebdo, the second magazine with the same title came out in 1992. The exhibition shows the founding fathers and the generations that followed them, from Berroyer, Vuillemin and Gourio to the cartoonists Charb, Tignous and Honoré who were slaughtered, with Cabu and Wolinski, in January this year.
The exhibition From Hara-Kiri to Charlie Hebdo is presented in part of Visa pour l’image – Perpignan Festival from August 29th to September 2015. Also, a book titled “Dans le ventre de Hara-Kiri” is release at La Martinière editions (ISBN : 978-2-7324-7422-9).
A Project presented by Signatures, maison de photographes
