The Color of May 1968. Paris Match and the Events of May and June 1968 Audrey Leblanc

The Color of May 1968. Paris Match and the Events of May and June 1968 Audrey Leblanc To cite this version: Audrey Leblanc. The Color of May 1968. Paris Match and the Events of May and June 1968. Etudes photographiques, Société française de photographie, 2010. hal-01395719 HAL Id: hal-01395719 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01395719 Submitted on 11 Nov 2016 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. The Color of May 1968 of black and white photography – unusual for the magazine, which nor- Paris Match and the Events mally published in color – tells the story of May and June 1968 of the obstacles its editors faced in designing and producing the magazine. An analysis of the choices the magazine yndicat du Livre (the Printers’ made reveals the economic and ideo- SUnion) joined the call that went out logical issues that came into play in for a general strike and mass demonstra- covering the events of May 1968. tion to be held on May 13, 1968. Most of the workers in the printing plants The Magazine’s Editorial and paper industries were members of Conventions Overturned this union, leaving the editors of the In early May 1968, the entire French French news magazines L’Express, Le Nou- press reacted sharply to the dramatic vel Observateur, and Paris Match with confrontations between students and immediate disruptions of their printing police that had taken place on May 6 at and distribution. The three weekly the Sorbonne.1 They were front-page magazines reacted in different ways to news in the newspapers and the subject these social and political developments. of multi-page articles in the news maga- These reactions affected their financial zines, which were dominated at this situation along with the so-called pho- time by L’Express, Le Nouvel Observateur, tojournalism news. While L’Express and and mainly Paris Match. Each of these Le Nouvel Observateur displayed a willing- publications had its own editorial con- ness to adapt and shared some of the ventions, especially regarding the use of movements’ fundamental political posi- black and white or color photography. tions, Paris Match ceased entirely its While L’Express and Le Nouvel Observateur publication for four consecutive weeks. were predominantly black and white, When it resumed publication on June Paris Match was highly colorful. A large- 15, the magazine picked up its coverage format magazine with a cover in color, of events where it had left off on May it varied in length between 150 and 180 18. By then, the status of those events pages, only half of which were printed had changed: if in mid-May they were in black and white. A third of the maga- considered news, in mid-June they zine consisted of ads while the rest con- already belonged to the past. In its June tained news reports and articles on cur- 15 issue, Paris Match offered a retrospec- rent events. Acquired by Jean Prouvost tive reading of the 1968’s spring events, in 1938, the sports magazine Match had as if they had already come to an end. resumed publication as a news weekly This narrative was conveyed in a formal in 1949, and right from the start it set layout of black and white images that itself apart from other magazines by revealed – and reinforced – the maga- publishing in color. zine’s support for General Charles de The former journalist Guillaume Gaulle on the eve of the first round of Hanoteau described this decision, which the June legislative elections. This use he viewed as typical of the audacity of 179 Étudesphotographiques,26 the team that had put out the magazine, spring of 1968 it dominated the news in this way: ‘The board had decided to magazines’ field and distinguished itself launch Paris Match by devoting a num- by its consistent use of color. ber of the magazine’s pages to color After the first ‘night of the barri- photographs. It was a real innovation. cades’ on May 10, all three magazines The Match of the prewar years had devoted, for the first time, their lead- never used color … But in 1950 they ing stories – including cover photo- wanted to surprise people, give them a graphs – to the so-called ‘student’ shock. It was a bold move, since the events. These similar and simultaneous techniques for producing and publish- reactions (all their covers featured ing these photographs was still little photographs of the confrontations known in France.’2 At least one of the between students and police) reflected articles listed on the cover was always the importance they ascribed to those illustrated in color inside the magazine events (figs. 2 to 4). Each of them – a treatment that denoted a high rank- adhered to its own familiar set of con- ing in the hierarchy of the news.3 ventions (regarding text, images, and The magazine’s increasing technical layout) in its coverage, with articles in proficiency in color publishing became black and white for Le Nouvel Observa- an essential element of its coverage of teur and L’Express; cover in color for current events. Paris Match was an L’Express and Paris Match; and a combi- immediate success, and by 1968 it had nation of color and black and white become the clear first choice among illustrations for Paris Match, which readers, with a circulation three times touted its difference from its competi- larger than any of its competitors.4 It tors with the headline: ‘La révolte des played an equally important role in the étudiants – Couleur nos documents professional world of the day, as sug- photo’ (The Student Revolt – Our gested by Hubert Henrotte,5 who at Photos Are in Color). the time was the manager director of In response to these confrontations, Gamma and later, from 1973, of Sygma, which were extraordinary to say the two of France’s leading photo agencies. least, workers officially joined the pro- In his memoirs, Henrotte rarely men- test movement at the big demonstra- tions the names of the magazines in tion of May 13. When the call was which the agency’s news reports and issued by the Printers’ Union, which photographs were published, with the was dominated by the CGT (Confé- notable exception of Paris Match; pub- dération générale du travail), workers lishing there consistently signified suc- from the paper industries and the cess for the photographer in question as printing plants also got mobilized, well as for the agency itself, and could launching a movement that took its even ‘make’ their reputations.6 Paris place in a long tradition of struggle and Match established itself both as the mag- protest. Both the Printers’ Union work- azine of reference and also as a presti- ers’ and the paper industry’s involve- gious and rewarding platform for publi- ment in the larger social movement cation photographer’s images. In the disrupted the press’s production lines, 180 The Color of May 1968 affecting, particularly, the printing and the opportunity to recall the magazine’s distribution of magazines.7 mission. However, no mention whatso- From this point onward, the three ever was made of the reasons for its long magazines ceased to react to the move- absence from the newsstands.10 While ments in the same way, and the differ- L’Express and Le Nouvel Observateur had ences between them were reflected in voiced their support for the strikes, Paris their coverage of current events. Match did not even allude to them, L’Express maintained its weekly publica- except to express its gratitude to those tion schedule until May 20 (issue no. who lent their support during what was 883), at which point it published a spe- clearly experienced as a trying and diffi- cial supplement in the same format and cult ordeal;11 the only acknowledge- on similar paper as the daily newspa- ment of why the magazine had inter- pers – three sheets and a cover in black, rupted its regular publication schedule white, and red. The supplement con- was a reference regarding subscription tained an insert from the editors problems. explaining that these disruptions in the All three magazines thus reappeared magazine’s publication were a conse- in mid-June, when the strikes in the quence of the strikes, which the maga- printing plants ended. L’Express and Le zine supported.8 L’Express did not appear Nouvel Observateur resumed their familiar regularly until June 17. Le Nouvel Obser- editorial line, noting – and featuring on vateur continued to publish weekly until their covers – the strikes that were then May 22. Delayed and headlined ‘Le underway, the approach of the legisla- Grand Chambardement’ (The Great tive elections, and the onset of a period Upheaval), issue no. 184 included an marked by debate. Indeed, L’Express insert with an explanation from the headlined its issue of June 17 ‘Vive et à editors.9 Printed in Germany and pre- bas’ (Hurrah and Boo!), then put a sented as a special issue, no. 185 was wheel of fortune into which political dated Thursday, May 30, 1968, and candidates’ faces had been inserted, on consisted of three folded sheets, or six- the cover of the following issue.

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