''Le Groupe des XV'' was a collective founded in 1946 by fifteen (hence its name) French

humanist photographers Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential, and agency of human beings, whom it considers the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humanism" has ...

who exhibited annually in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

until 1957. Its objective was to have photography recognised as an art form in its own right, and to use it to preserve French photographic heritage.

Founding members

Members from 1948

Professional organisation

Annual exhibitions of their work were organised by André Garban, assisted in the background by Emmanuel Sougez, founder in 1937 of the group Le Rectangle, a predecessor Parisian photographer association active until all professional organisations were dissolved during the Occupation under

Vichy Vichy (, ; ) is a city in the central French department of Allier. Located on the Allier river, it is a major spa and resort town and during World War II was the capital of Vichy France. As of 2021, Vichy has a population of 25,789. Known f ...

rule. Several Le Groupe des XV members had formerly been in Rectangle and in 1946 they regarded themselves and their invited recruits as friends who had a common interest in artistic photography, naming the group "by analogy with the spirit of team and the sports camaraderie that animates rugby clubs".

Ethos

The group's manifesto echoes that of Le Rectangle, providing a continuum between the 1930s and the immediate post-war:

"loving above all their profession, animated by the same faith and eager to endow photographic art of quality works, each ..member formally commits himself to respect the spirit of loyalty, frankness and mutual assistance which is the very basis of the grouping".

They espoused:

"Respect for process! - Real photography - The perfect negative - And if possible, no retouching; that ‘maid-of-all-work’ to the bad photographer! No blur either; such a "myopic style"! And as much as possible new ideas, new angles, originality .. Our tradition:
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,
Nadar Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (; 5 April 1820 – 20 March 1910), known by the pseudonym Nadar () or Félix Nadar'','' was a French photographer, caricaturist, journalist, novelist, balloon (aircraft), balloonist, and proponent of History of avi ...
, Atget,
Weston Weston may refer to: Places Australia * Weston, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra * Weston, New South Wales * Weston Creek, a residential district of Canberra * Weston Park, Canberra, a park Canada * Weston, Nova Scotia * W ...
, Cartier-Bresson."

Defining the status of the profession

All members were professionals in both their motivation and in deriving their income from commissions with, among other outlets, magazines ''Plaisir de France'' and ''Réalités'' favouring their work during the boom in pictorial magazines. The chief chronicler of Les Groupe des XV, Marcel Bovis, in particular, was concerned with the status of their medium:

"At a time when the profession of photographer-illustrator is classed with manufacturers of funerary wreaths, it is above all a question of asserting the notion of profession by a demanding conception of photography in all fields".

1946, the year of the group's founding, was in a period in which professional organisations and the place of the arts and crafts within them was being reassessed, Le Groupe des XV also created, as an annex to the group, the Society of Illustrators and Author Photographers: the SIAP. This entity administered by the XV replaced the Artisanal Professional Groups of the 1940s, enforcing copyright and reproduction, the code of ethics and pricing, without forgetting "to create between its members links of confraternity".

Exhibitions

For the annual exhibitions of Le Groupe des XV, Garban secured venues at the Galerie Jean Pascaud, 165 Boulevard Haussmann, at the Cercle de la Librairie,

boulevard Saint-Germain The Boulevard Saint-Germain () is a major street in Paris on the Rive Gauche of the Seine. It curves in a 3.5-kilometre (2.1 miles) arc from the Pont de Sully in the east (the bridge at the edge of Île Saint-Louis) to the Pont de la Concord ...

or the Galerie Mirador,

Place Vendôme The Place Vendôme (), earlier known as the Place Louis-le-Grand, and also as the Place Internationale, is a square in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France, located to the north of the Tuileries Gardens and east of the Église de la Madelein ...

, as well as offering his own portrait studio in rue Bourdaloue ( 9th arrondissement) for meetings. From 1946 he established the National Exhibition of Photography in the Galerie Mansart,

Bibliothèque nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

Humanist photography

The group had in common an interest in documenting the life of the street as a representation of French culture and valued the contribution of

Surrealism Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

and of the

New Objectivity The New Objectivity (in ) was a movement in German art that arose during the 1920s as a reaction against German Expressionism, expressionism. The term was coined by Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub, the director of the ''Kunsthalle Mannheim, Kunsthalle' ...

to their imagery, but they rejected

pictorialism Pictorialism is an international style and aesthetic movement that dominated photography during the later 19th and early 20th centuries. There is no standard definition of the term, but in general it refers to a style in which the photographer ha ...

. Consequently, the majority contributed significantly to French humanist photography.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Groupe Des XV, Le 20th-century French photographers French street photographers Arts organizations established in 1946 French photography organizations Humanist photographers Photo agencies Cooperatives in France Professional associations based in France 1946 establishments in France