The theme of the temporary exhibition is social reportage and its beginnings.



It shows how photographers through the 19th century viewed factory workers, artisans, farm labourers, the poor and the dispossessed, and even communities barely touched by western civilisation.

As the common people” slowly attained “historic dignity”, they also became a worth subject for photographic documentation. The prints in the exhibition, taken from different periods and in very different conditions, include a series on the fishermen of New Haven, taken in 1843 by Hill and Adamson, photographs officially commissioned by Napoleon III– of the building of a hospice for construction workers who had suffered injuries at work, or the floods in the Rhône area of France– as well as genuine sociological studies such as a photo-reportage on the Jewish communities in Poland, undertaken in 1919 at the request of a charitable organisation.

The exhibition promies a glimpse into the lives of the “little people” who helped France become the nation it is today.

Essential information

When: 16th October 2007 – 6th January 2008
Where: Musée d’Orsay, 1, rue de la Légion d’Honneur, Paris 7th arrondissement. Métro Solferino (line 12) or RER Musée d’Orsay (line C), or bus n°s 24, 63, 68, 69, 73, 83, 84, 94 (map here)
Opening times: Open every day except Monday, 9.30am to 6pm (9.45pm on Thursdays)
Entrance fee: 7.50 euros. Concessions: 5.50 euros. Free admission for certain cases
Official site: Musée d’Orsay

Photo credit (top): Peter Henry Emerson (1856-1936), Dans l’atelier de voilerie 1890, © Musée d’Orsay, Patrice Schmidt