FROM NOVEMBER 9, 2026, TO FEBRUARY 9, 2027
Paris is a constant in Jean-Claude Gautrand’s photographic work. For 60 years, he has photographed the city, its construction sites, its ever-changing streets, and its transformations. His images echo the humanism he absorbed alongside his friends Doisneau and Ronis. His perspective on the capital helps us discover the extraordinary in the everyday.
“As I’ve wandered through Paris, I’ve never failed to come across, here and there, a few unexpected encounters and some special visual moments.”
A humanist with a rigorous yet compassionate eye, his photographs also serve as a reflection on the passage of time, memory, and loss.
The unforgettable images from “The Assassination of Baltard”—a poignant protest against the demolition of Les Halles, the heart and soul of Paris—immortalize the dramatic disappearance of a Parisian neighborhood that is gone forever.
“Bercy” is a chronicle of the last Parisian village where wine merchants had settled. This final stroll through the wine cellars captures images of a timeless village that is slowly disappearing.
Similarly, one of his early series, “The Walls of May,” serves as a testament—through the graffiti and posters that briefly blossomed on the city’s walls—to the creativity and collective imagination of that era.
“Photography is a race against fading, disappearance, and nothingness. It is a struggle against time, a challenge to oblivion.”
ABOUT JEAN-CLAUDE GAUTRAND
Jean-Claude Gautrand, who passed away on September 23, 2019, in Paris, holds an important place in the world of photography, both for his photographic body of work and for his prolific literary, critical, and historical writings. He is the author of several books on his own work, as well as on the history of photography and the careers of other great photographers, many of whom were his friends. He never ceased to advocate for the recognition of photography.
Jean-Claude Gautrand is represented by the “Les Douches” Gallery, 54 rue Chapon – 75003 Paris
