From on-stage snaps and high fashion shoots to renowned writers and in-vogue actors as well as everyday Parisians caught on the fly working or enjoying themselves, close to 250 black-and-white photographs by Jacques Rouchon bring celebrities and anonymous subjects to life, plunging us into the atmosphere of a typical day in Liberation-era Paris and the dawning of the swinging sixties.

At the first exhibition in NYC, we’ll be showcasing a wide selection of the 250 photographs taken by Jacques Rouchon between 1945 and 1958, mapping out a day in Paris in chronological order: From dawn’s first light to deepest, darkest night and the lonely hours of the early morning, the Paris of the workers, the flaneurs, the early birds and the night owls rolls by, in a medley of social classes. Figures are shown working, making, creating, socialising, and enjoying Paris as it is reborn in the aftermath of World War 2, despite the poverty that still lingers in some districts. Over the course of the fifteen-odd years covered in this book, the city rises from the ashes, becoming an artistic and cultural capital, a vibrant, diverse melting pot buzzing with life.

Jacques Rouchon’s camera serves up a taste of his enthusiasm and passion as a photographer: unflinching, empathic, tender, and sometimes even humorous.  Nameless Parisians – traders, workers, stallholders, craftsmen and civil servants –  brush shoulders with famous writers, actors, and designers, coming together to form the cast of a spectacular day out in Paris. An extraordinary and highly personal snapshot of the capital and its locals at the start of the glorious thirty years that followed the war.