Louis ARAGONLivre Rare Book
Louis ARAGON - (Willy RONIS)Biblio.com
Une séance photo avec Willy Ronis Original autograph manuscript
1948réf. 872391948. Fine. ""Nose in the air arms flying with nonchalance with joy as Willy Ronis says. black shoes a large hat a wasp waist skirt in the wind and not the slightest idea what all this could be for but all the sunshine of late April in the veil. and like Paris absurdly inimitable."" s. d. avril 1948 21 x 30 cm 4 pages sur 4 feuillets Exceptional complete autograph manuscript by Louis Aragon. 4 pages in pencil on 4 leaves numbered in his hand. Discrete trace of rust discharge on the first leaf and on the verso of the last. Horizontal fold across all leaves. The article would be published under the title ""L'Art de prendre une photo pour Les Lettres Françaises"" Regards May 14 1948. Aragon accompanies the great Willy Ronis during a photographic session for a fashion portrait for Les Lettres Françaises. Following in Ronis's footsteps as he directs his spinning model the writer takes us through four pages across an enchanting Paris where popular life and worldly elegance intermingle. ""The aim was to illustrate Le Nez au vent by Louis Chéronnet. The column's theme was: The Elegance of Paris is moving westward and more specifically focused on avenue Montaigne"" begins Aragon in his chronicle. For the duration of a day the writer documents with fascination the photographer's work in one of his favorite settings: the streets of Paris. Several tableaux unfold in succession in the Montorgueil quarter at the milliner's in Ronis's studio on avenue Montaigne at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. The key word for both Aragon and Ronis is movement. Photography is not static nor are Aragon's impressions. We jump like the model in the photographer's shots from one place to another. The portrait of the elegant woman expands under the writer's pen to her surroundings to the bubbling life of Paris that stops for an instant to contemplate the model's silhouette animated by the photographer's instructions. Sixty years later Ronis would remember that memorable day: ""Aragon had a very beautiful regard for photography. He knew what an image was. Elsa too. He had me work when he founded and directed Les Lettres françaises. I did several reports for him. The first small report was in 1947 or 48 a report on fashion on avenue Montaigne. Aragon came with me we had chosen a model. I was a bit intimidated by Aragon it was my first contact with him. I wanted to get the maximum from my model I was working very hard because I was nervous. Seeing me work amused him so much that he didn't write the report about the model but about me working. I had seen him quite many times afterward we used the familiar form with each other."" Willy Ronis interview in Libération September 14 2009 Their militant paths crossed on numerous occasions - Ronis contributed through his photographs to witness the social revolts that shook the 1930s while Aragon devoted many articles to them. In 1949 the photographer would follow the commemorative day of the Oradour-sur-Glane tragedy in which nearly 400 artists participated at Aragon's initiative. He would also be the author of beautiful portraits of the Aragon-Triolet couple. Excerpts from the manuscript: Willy Ronis had arranged to meet me at 10:30 at the corner of rue Tiquetonne and rue Montorgueil. Apparently he was photographing athletes there. Ah! it was that restaurant where in the past we used to go eat with Vaillant-Couturier and there were Action Française types who would shoot daggers at us with their eyes. Instead of athletes Willy was there in his velvet jacket with his spectacles taking shots left and right at the counter of a couple of lovers. Sweet the lovers. The little one especially. Perhaps it's a sport. . There is nothing more solemn than Caroline Reboux. It is the temple of hats. If he lived in our times this is where Aristotle would write. Caroline Reboux herself made the bonnets for Nana and Eugénie de Montijo; at her place Bel-Ami would twist h unknown
