Gaston Paris (1903-1964), a photographer in full rehabilitation, is at the origin of an impressive body of work, as much by his powerful style as by the diversity of his subjects, from the festive intoxication of the thirties to the difficulties of the post-World War II era. Both a humanist photographer and a photo-reporter, Gaston Paris is above all an illustrative photographer who documents his time with humor and empathy. His black and white images seem to tell us that the world is a theater where multiple scenes are played out, of love, joy but also of labor, expectation and hope. Scenes of life intersect with scenes of shows or reconstructions. Portraits of anonymous people rub shoulders with those of celebrities, they merge with images of wax mannequins, whose disarticulated bodies are reminiscent of surrealism. His cinematographic training leads him to pose his models with frontal lighting, modeling the bodies and faces. There is something sculptural in Gaston Paris' photography with forms monumentalized by light and sublimated volumes. His urban and industrial landscapes, always very graphic, are composed to perfection in the square frame of the Releliflex. Pillar and unique salaried photographer of the magazine VU, member of the Rectangle with Emmanuel Sayer, Pierre Jaton, his productions will aggregate the pages of many magazines illustrated very fashionable at the time. After his death, the Roger-Viollet agency bought his production. Presented at the Roger-Viollet Gallery from January 20 to April 23, 2022