François Kollar was born in Hungary in 1904 and settled in Paris in 1924. A passionate amateur photographer in his youth, he apprenticed at the Draeger Brothers printing house, then at the Chevojon studio and the Lecram agency. He founded his own studio in 1930. In 1931, he started a collaboration with publishing house "Horizons de France" for a series of photographic reports about the French working world, published under the title "La France travaille". This extensive study - over 2,000 photographs - was produced over 4 years and took François Kollar all around the country, where he documented each sector of French industry and agriculture. From 1932, "La France travaille" was published in instalments and was met with public and critical acclaim which helped launch the young photographer's career. His eclectic production - advertizing and fashion photography as well as industrial reports, or photo murals for the Paris 1937 World Fair pavilions - was widely exhibited and published in magazines such as "Le Figaro illustré", "Plaisirs de France", "Vu" and "Harper's Bazar" and in numerous professional publications, until the mid 1960's. He died in Créteil in 1979. In 1975, the Horizons de France publishing house donated the photographer's production for "La France Travaille" to the City of Paris' principal graphic arts library, Bibliothèque Forney.
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