The Significance of Photography for the Contentious Movements of May 1968 and June 1936
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
The Entangled Sites of Memory: The Significance of Photography for the Contentious Movements of May 1968 and June 1936 Benjamin Oliver Partridge Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of History Classics and Archaeology Newcastle University February 2020 Abstract This thesis explores the photography of two major strike movements in French history, both of which have attained ‘iconic’ status and both of which produced substantial and diverse photographic records. The central aim of the thesis is to analyse these images, drawn from archives, exhibitions, digitised and printed collections, and examine their relationship to the collective memories and historiographical narratives of the strike movements. It analyses the entanglements and commonalities between the photographic representations of the two movements, and argues that the photographic record of these strike waves needs to be analysed in relation to the social context it was produced in. Drawing on the work of Walter Benjamin and John Berger, it proposes an approach that links the production of a photographic record to the social contestation it displays, as well as analysing what the photographic afterlives of the movements tells us about how they have been subsequently understood. This thesis approaches this photographic record on three different levels: through particular photographers or exhibitions, through discrete themes and framings and as individual photographs. It provides an analysis of diverse body of sources, some of which have been extensively used and re-used, and others that are less well known. A key area of enquiry is how the preservation and presentation of the photographic record links to the historiography of the events they depict. This thesis places the photographic record of two important strike movements within contemporary historiographical debates and highlights the value of a comparative approach informed by methodical innovations, such as entangled and transnational history. i ii Acknowledgements First and foremost, I must thank my supervisory team, Matt Perry and Sarah Leahy who have provided endless support and guidance throughout the project, and without whom this thesis would not exist. I am grateful to the AHRC Northern Bridge Doctoral Training partnership for the studentship that has funded this research and to the Society for the Study of Labour History, which also provided financial support for research trips. The Labour and Society Research Group at Newcastle has been a fantastic place to share ideas, and I have enjoyed the many discussions in seminars and workshops which have not only been important in shaping my own thoughts, but have introduced me to those of so many others. I would especially like to thank participants at the group’s 2017 conference on Visualising Labour, which was key in developing some of the thoughts behind this thesis. Thanks are also due to archivists at the Bibliothèque de documentation internationale contemporaine and Bibliothèque nationale for their assistance, and particularly Joel Clesse and Maxime Courban at the Archives Départementales de la Seine-Saint-Denis, who were of great help in my research. I would also like to thank Máire Cross for her guidance and comments, and Peter Noble for casting a critical eye over parts of the draft. Of course, I am deeply indebted to my parents and family for their constant support and encouragement over the years. And finally, to Jess, for everything else. iii iv Table of Contents Abstract i Acknowledgements iii Introduction 1 Historiography of 1968 2 Historiography of 1936 9 Methodology of the history of Photography: Benjamin, Berger and Entanglement 12 Sources and Structure 29 Chapter 1. Conflict and Harmony in Strike Photography 35 Photographing Social Contestation 36 A Crisis of Representation 39 The Harmonious Strike and Displaced Conflict 41 Street Fighting and Cobblestones 47 Photography and Police Violence 49 Chapter 2. Photography at the Factory 63 Depicting Workers at the Factory 65 Seizing Sight: Signs, Graffiti, and Effigies 74 Iconic factories: Berliet, Sud-Aviation, and Renault Boulogne-Billancourt 80 Visualising Autogestion 92 v Chapter 3. Photographers’ Trajectories 96 Popular Front Trajectories 100 1968 Trajectories 106 Shared Trajectories 118 Chapter 4. Generation 129 The ‘68 Generation 131 Generational Divides 140 A ‘36 Generation? 142 Chapter 5. Wider resonances: Transnational Photography and Revolutionary Pasts 150 The Transnational Photography of May ‘68 152 Transnational Press: The example of Action 157 Transnational Subjects: Photographing Migrant Workers 160 Revolutionary Pasts: Historic Symbolism 163 Chapter 6. Photography and ‘68 Thought’ 173 ‘68 thought’ 174 The Situationists 178 Photographic Theory and ‘The Gaze’ 181 Barthes and Photographic Ontology 184 Bourdieu and Sociology 188 John Berger 191 vi Chapter 7. Photography and Commemoration: Anniversary Exhibitions 196 2016: Eightieth Anniversary of the Popular Front 197 The Exhibitions 203 Anniversary Exhibitions of May ‘68 212 2008: Fortieth Anniversary of May ‘68 214 2018: Fiftieth Anniversary of May ‘68 223 Icônes de Mai 68: Les Images ont une Histoire at the Bibliothèque Nationale Française 224 ‘68, Les Archives Du Pouvoir at the Archives Nationales 228 Images en Lutte: la culture visuelle de l’extrême gauche en France (1968-1974) at the Beaux- Arts de Paris 230 Conclusion 235 Bibliography 243 Appendix A. Selected Photographs 279 vii viii Introduction This thesis explores the photography of the most significant two strike movements in French history, June 1936 and May 1968. Following the election of a Popular Front government in May 1936, a general strike swept the country, resulting in the Matignon Agreements on the 7 June, which established collective bargaining rights, wage increases and paid holidays.1 32 years later, in May 1968, conflicts between police and students in Paris rapidly generalised into another general strike that became the key reference point for social contestation in France for decades.2 Both these strikes have attained an iconic position, depicted in widely replicated photographs acquiring an almost symbolic status.3 Yet both movements produced substantial and diverse photographic records well beyond the most recognisable images. The central aim of this thesis is to analyse these images - drawn from archives, exhibitions, digitised and printed collections - in order to establish their relationship to the collective memories and historiographical narratives of the strike movements. It analyses the entanglements and commonalities between the photographic representations of the two movements. This thesis approaches this collection of material at three scales: the photographic theme or convention, the itinerary (of a particular photograph or photographer), and the commemorative event (anniversary, exhibitions, and publications). It provides an analysis of a diverse body of sources, some of which have been extensively used and re-used, and others that are less well known. A primary area of enquiry is how the preservation and presentation of the photographs’ links to the historiography of the events they depict. This thesis places the images within contemporary historiographical debates and highlights the 1 Julian Jackson, The Popular Front in France: Defending Democracy, 1934-38. (Cambridge University Press, 1990), 8-10. 2 Robert Frank, ‘Introduction’, in Geneviève Dreyfus-Armand, Robert Frank, Marie-Françoise Lévy and Michelle Zancarini-Fournel (eds.), Les Années 68: le temps de contestation (Brussels: Editions Complexe, 2000), 16. 3 André Gunthert, ‘Les icônes du photojournalisme, ou la narration visuelle inavouable’, in Daniel Dubuisson, Sophie Raux (eds.), A perte de vue. Sciences et cultures du visuel, (Dijon, Presses du Réel, 2014); ‘Les Icônes du Photojournalisme: de l’information à la Pop Culture’, Audrey Leblanc and Dominic Versavel, (eds.), Icônes de Mai 68: Les Images ont une histoire, (Paris: BnF Éditions, 2018), 19-31. 1 value of a comparative approach informed by methodological innovations, such as entangled and transnational history.4 Fundamentally, its goal is to write social and labour history through photographs. By analysing the images of both strike movements alongside one another, we can trace the continuities and ruptures in how both industrial action and social contestation were visualised. Historiography of 1968 Much of the historiography of May ’68 has probed the results or potential legacy of the movement. For example, almost immediately after the events, Raymond Aron sought the meaning of the ‘elusive’ revolution.5 In many cases, this would involve working May into contemporary political narratives. By the 1980s, Gilles Lipovetsky was reducing the politics of May to an ephemeral ‘communication’, prefiguring neo-liberal hegemony.6 Further diminishing the movement’s political content, Hervé Hamon and Patrick Rotman’s Génération became the archetypal reduction of a nationwide mass strike movement to the biography of a few dozen activists, who would incidentally repudiate their Marxism and become major metropolitan journalists, politicians and media-figures.7 Kristin Ross’s work was a vital re-evaluation of the ‘Afterlives’ of May, re-asserting the centrality of collective anti-capitalist politics to 1968, and critically examining how accounts such as Hamon and Rotman’s came to obscure this.8 The concept of an ‘afterlife’ is an important one for this project. An ‘afterlife’ entwines the material and ideological