Snapshots of History

Spring 1969, it has been 4 years since the Americans started to fight in Vietnam. We follow the pictures of a 20-year-old American soldier, Dan Love.

Between Stalin's death and the coming to power of Nikita Khrushchev in 1953, relations between the Soviet Union and the United States warmed up.

Andrée and Victor Kuentzmann had just gotten married when the allied troops landed in Normandy on the 1st August 1944.

August 1944, Paris celebrates its Liberation after four years of occupation. For over 600,000 French Compulsory Service workers, the war isn’t over.

After its defeat in 1940, France was split. In the north were the Germans and in the south, a free zone overseen by Marshal Pétain's government.

In 1905, Victor Bermon, a French naval officer, was sent to China to assure the presence of France on the Yangtze river.

On August 2nd, 1914, France decreed the mobilisation of its armed forces. This war would drag Europe into 20th-century brutality.

February 12th, 1934. The French Section of the Workers' International was reacting to the extreme-right-wing demonstrations of six days prior.

On December 7th, 1941, Japan bombed the American fleet based in Pearl Harbour. We follow Bill Manbo, an American citizen of Japanese origin.

In September 1968, a young officer, François Dullin, who had just graduated from Saint Cyr Military Academy flew to Papeete to be stationed.

Wolfgang Thomas was a railwayman who lived in East Berlin. His photos show the months that led to the collapse of the Berlin wall in 1989.

In 1935, Andrée Greffrath left Paris for Senegal with her parents. Their photos show a vision of life in colonial France that was coming apart.

The wealth of photographs accredited to a certain Mr X provides an astonishing record of Paris in the roaring twenties.

In the 1930s, Nazi Germany and its Japanese ally were threatening global stability. Japan wanted to capture territories in China.

In 1930, India was starting to face nationalist demands. Stanislas Antonowicz’s 800 photographs provide a glimpse of a period and a vision.

The 500 pictures left by Vicky Henderson record the rise of a young black woman in 1950s Europe. Her photos tell of segregation and cabaret dancing.

Dr. Léon Collin's photos take us into the heart of the penal colonies, prisons to which the French sent 100,000 men between 1854 and 1938.

In autumn of 1980, Richard, a young drummer, headed to New York to make a name for himself. He met Michael who shared the same love of the blues.

In 1923, Pilou was 19 years old from a small town in the Yonne and knew that one day he would go to Paris, where he could embrace his desire for men.