Chim-The Photographs of David Seymour
1911-Chim  1933-Paris  1936-Spain  1947-Germany  1948-UNESCO  1950-Italy  1952-Portraits  1954-Greece  1956-Israel
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1933 - Paris: The Front Populaire



A young Chim. Paris, circa 1934. Photographer unknown.
©1996 from the Estate of David Seymour


The International Writers Congress: Paul Vaillant-Couturier, André Gide, and André Malraux in front of a poster of Maxim Gorki. Paris, 1935
©1996 from the Estate of David Seymour


Front Populaire Demonstration. Paris, 1936
©1996 from the Estate of David Seymour


Anti-war rally. St. Cloud. Paris, 1936
©1996 from the Estate of David Seymour

A new magazine was being launched in France, that became a perfect vehicle for David Seymour's work. Like the magazine's editors, he was an intellectual and a humanist with a social conscience. Indeed, his values had been partly formed by their writings, which, in turn, influenced his photographic style and writing. On board of directors was Romain Rolland, whose novels of idealistic young men were the rage in the 1930s, as were the books and values of pacifist Henri Barbusse, also on the board. Another board member was the young André Malraux, who had recently won the Prix Goncourt for his La Condition Humaine.

Like other magazines, Regards featured politics, entertainment, sports, and serialized novels. But its specialty was to create awareness of the deplorable economic and social conditions of the working people of France, whose wages had been cut in recent years.

Chim reported on the coal miners at work below ground in the Alsace, on board a tuna fishing vessel in the North Sea, on the picturesque but hard life of the people of the remote Isle de Sein in Brittany. In St. Etienne he showed France's finest gun makers at work and the artisan ribbon makers, weaving fine patterns on jacquard looms. He traveled in the company of a writer, for his work was accompanied by articles describing the working conditions of his subjects. In Chim's work, we see his finely developed sympathy for his subjects and his knack for photographing them unawares, abetted by the use of his Leica, which was still very unusual among photographers, especially in the French countryside.

Chim's work for Regards coincided with a two-year period of mass demonstrations and mass meetings, pro and contra French governments, pro and contra armament and disarmament, pro and contra fascism and communism. This activity culminated in the victory of the movement known as the Front Populaire. Regards advocated the platform of the Front Populaire, a coalition of socialist and communist parties, under the leadership of Leon Blum, who was to become prime minister. This coalition was motivated not only by the social conditions in France, but also by the fear of yet another war with Germany next door, and, not least, as the economy worsened and unemployment rose, by the threat of ever-growing fascist parties at home. As prime minister, Blum accorded the French people a new deal of their own, inspired by that of American president Franklin D. Roosevelt. For the first time, working French enjoyed the right of collective bargaining, and the right to a forty- hour work week, and the right to a paid vacation. There were adequate pensions, and government subsidies for families with many children as well. There were other reforms to stabilize France's financial position, plus a strong anti-fascist and pro-peace stand.

With its pro-union policy and its far-reaching contacts all over France, Regards offered Chim a unique opportunity to photograph the working class, whose labors provided the bulk of France's national income at a time when working conditions and politics merged before the twin threats of economic and political repression.

When international luminaries from the writing world met in 1935 in Paris for "Days in Defense of Culture" Chim photographed them brilliantly. Among them were Andre Gidé, André Malraux, Aldous Huxley, and Alexis Tolstoy.

The writers, though few in number, were the most powerful purveyors of information to influence the worker's vast numbers of votes. The writers were responding to the threatening political initiatives by the new fascist regimes. In March 1934, Hitler had marched into the demilitarized zone of the Rhineland. The following March, he introduced conscription. Italy invaded Ethiopia that October. Yet neither England, nor France, nor the League of Nations attempted to stem these aggressive acts. The drums of war were not far away.

- Inge Bondi

© 1996, Inge Bondi
from CHIM: The Photographs of David Seymour, Bulfinch Press/Little, Brown and Company

1911-Chim  1933-Paris  1936-Spain  1947-Germany  1948-UNESCO  1950-Italy  1952-Portraits  1954-Greece  1956-Israel
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