In 1951, Robert Capa advised Jean Marquis (1926-2019), actor and drama host, to look into photography. He has an eye. Three years later, he joined the agency Magnum Photos alongside Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Chim.
Edward Steichen, director of the MoMa photography department, selected him for the exhibition The Family of Man (1955). Many retrospectives will follow in institutions in France and abroad.
Jean Marquis is at the rendezvous of History. It covers the liveliness of the streets of Paris, the social and artistic effervescence, from the victims of the repression at the Charonne metro (1962) to the social unrest of May 1968. The press likes it, publishes it, from Time to Life. The covers are multiplying: a former deportee from the extermination camps in a striped shirt for Life (1958), Brigitte Bardot, the world star, for L'Express (1962).
Europe, Iran, Senegal, Algeria, Jean Marquis travels, special envoy of the international press. In Lapland (1956), he is at the top of his art in the intimacy of the Sami.
In 2011, Jean Marquis entrusted the distribution of his photographs to the Roger-Viollet agency, a set of which comes from the collection of the Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris.
Galerie Roger-Viollet
Since 1938, Hélène Roger-Viollet and her husband have built a unique collection of more than 6 million photographs, now held at the Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris. Founded in 2020, the Galerie Roger-Viollet is an essential stop for photography enthusiasts, with exhibitions showcasing the distinctive work of photographers such as Gaston Paris, Boris Lipnitzki, Laure Albin Guillot, and of course Hélène Roger-Viollet herself.
The Galerie Roger-Viollet explores the work of Jean Marquis for the first time, presenting 112 modern prints in a numbered edition limited to 30 copies.