Collection of Lithuanian photography in the French National Library

Most likely, the most representative Collection of Lithuanian photography outside of Lithuania of 1960-2000 is stored in the French National Library. It was possible to accumulate such a rich collection thanks to close connections, in the 20th century. Established in the 1990s between the curator Jean-Claude Lemagny and the extremely dynamic Lithuanian school of photography, and especially the Kaunas branch of the Lithuanian Photographers Association, which was chaired by Aleksandras Macijauskas at the time. Following in his example, other Lithuanian photographers, including Algimantas Kunčius, Algimantas Kezys, Romualdas Rakauskas, Antanas Sutkus, Romualdas Požerskis and many others, generously added their prints to the French National Library collections.

Photo by Jérôme Lacharmoise

Archivist and palaeographer Dominique Versavel is the curator of photography in the 20th century Press and Photography Department of the National Library of France since 2002. She regularly participates in various conferences, has compiled a number of exhibition catalogues, including Objets dans l'objectif (2005), La Photographie humaniste (2006), Presse à la Une (2012), Alix-Cléo Roubaud (2014), Icônes de Mai 68: les images ont une histoire (2018), Noir et Blanc: une esthétique de la photographie (2020). In 2021-2022, she was a member of the evaluation committee of the influential French photojournalism project Radioscopie de la France.