André Zucca (1897-1973) was a French

photographer A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographers As in other ...

and Nazi collaborator, most well known for his work with the German propaganda magazine ''

Signal In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The '' IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing' ...

''.

Biography

André Zucca was born in 1897 in Paris, the son of an Italian dressmaker. Zucca spent part of his youth in the United States before returning to France in 1915. Following the outbreak of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, he joined the

French Army The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (french: Armée de Terre, ), is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces. It is responsible to the Government of France, along with the other components of the Armed Force ...

where he was wounded and decorated with the Croix de Guerre. After the war, he began a career as a photographer. After several foreign reports from 1935 to 1937 (Italy, Greece, Yugoslavia, Japan, China, India, Morocco) alongside fellow journalist

Joseph Kessel Joseph Kessel (10 February 1898 – 23 July 1979), also known as "Jef", was a French journalist and novelist. He was a member of the Académie française and Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour. Biography Kessel was born to a Jewish family in ...

, he began work for several news publications, including ''

L'Illustration ''L'Illustration'' was a weekly French newspaper published in Paris from 1843 to 1944. It was founded by Édouard Charton with the first issue published on 4 March 1843, it became the first illustrated newspaper in France then, after 1906, the ...

'', '' Paris-Soir'', and ''

Match A match is a tool for starting a fire. Typically, matches are made of small wooden sticks or stiff paper. One end is coated with a material that can be ignited by friction generated by striking the match against a suitable surface. Wooden matc ...

''. From September 1939 until the Fall of France in June 1940, he covered the

Phony War The Phoney War (french: Drôle de guerre; german: Sitzkrieg) was an eight-month period at the start of World War II, during which there was only one limited military land operation on the Western Front, when French troops invaded Germa ...

in the press. In 1941, he was contracted by the occupying Germans to work as a photographer and correspondent for the magazine ''

'', a propaganda organ of the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...

. His photography was used to support a positive image of the German occupation in France, as well as to encourage French men to volunteer for the

Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism The Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism (french: Légion des volontaires français contre le bolchévisme, LVF) was a unit of the German Army during World War II consisting of collaborationist volunteers from France. Officially design ...

, a collaborationist French militia serving on the Eastern Front. It is disputed whether or not Zucca's work for the Germans was linked to any ideological sympathies with Nazism, and some have argued he was a right-wing anarchist. In addition to his contributions to ''Signal'', he was one of the few photographers in occupied-Europe with access to

Agfacolor An Agfacolor slide dated 1937 from café in Oslo, Norway. An Agfacolor slide dated 1937 from Paris, France. An Agfacolor slide dated 1938 from Hungary. An Agfacolor slide dated 1938 from Zakopane in Poland. An Agfacolor slide dated 1938 fr ...

film, a rare and expensive piece of color film at the time, thanks to his close relationship with the Germans. He is most well known today for his color photographs of daily life in Paris under German occupation. His son

Pierre Zucca Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...

, ( fr) a film director, was born in 1943. Following the liberation, he was placed on trial in October 1944 by the French Provisional Government in the

épuration légale The ''épuration légale'' (French "legal purge") was the wave of official trials that followed the Liberation of France and the fall of the Vichy Regime. The trials were largely conducted from 1944 to 1949, with subsequent legal action continui ...

(legal purge), where his journalistic privileges were permanently revoked. The court ruled that no further legal action should be taken against Zucca, largely thanks to the credentials of a resistance member who spoke out on his behalf. With his journalism career in shambles, Zucca assumed the name André Piernic and settled in the French commune of Dreux, where he opened a small photo boutique, taking wedding and communion photos. He died in 1973. His photo collections were purchased by the

Bibliothèque historique de la ville de Paris The Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris, commonly abbreviated with the acronym BHVP, is a public library specializing in the history of the city of Paris, France. Formerly in the Hôtel Saint-Fargeau (now part of the Musée Carnaval ...

in 1986, consisting primarily of his photos of occupied Paris taken during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. In 2008,

Éditions Gallimard Éditions Gallimard (), formerly Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française (1911–1919) and Librairie Gallimard (1919–1961), is one of the leading French book publishers. In 2003 it and its subsidiaries published 1,418 titles. Founded by Ga ...

, a major French publishing house, worked with the city of Paris to organize an exhibition of Zucca's wartime photographs. The exhibition attracted a great deal of controversy for its portrayal of a seemingly-carefree, wartime Paris.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zucca, André 1897 births 1973 deaths 20th-century French artists 20th-century photographers French photographers French photojournalists Street photographers French collaborators with Nazi Germany