Popular Paris in the 70's,
a crossed view by François-Xavier Bouchart & Léon Claude Vénézia
Léon Claude Vénézia
Young gipsy girl running on Rue Titon. Paris (11th Arr.), ca 1970.
60x80 cm print.
From 1967 to 1977, two young photographers, François-Xavier Bouchart (1946-1993) and Léon Claude Vénézia (1941- 2013) have been wandering the streets of the working-class Paris, mainly those of what were once the villages of Belleville and Ménilmontant. They documented the hustle and bustle of local life, and the urban fabric in the midst of a metamorphosis in which buildings, often insalubrious, and colorful shopfronts gave way to charmless low-income housing.
Sixty-five contemporary prints in a limited edition of fifteen copies.
Bouchart and Vénézia mainly chose colour and Kodachrome or Ektachrome slides to capture what was about to disappear, when other humanist photographers prefered black and white, such as Willy Ronis, whose work on these neighborhoods is part of the collective memory. Echoing La vie devant soi by Émile Ajar (Romain Gary’s pseudonym), they focused on children playing freely in the streets, on cafés frequented by French and immigrant workers, and on courtyards where housewives hung out their laundry and concierges watched over the neighborhood.
Léon Claude Vénézia
Café-Hotel "Au Bon Coin" at the corner of Rue des Solitaires and Rue Arthur Rozier. Paris (19th Arr.), 1967.
50x60 cm print.
François-Xavier Bouchart
Color merchant shop "À la Palette d'or", down the Rue de Belleville. Paris (20th Arr.), circa 1970.
30x40 cm print.
François-Xavier Bouchart
Café "Au Point du Jour" at the corner of Rue de Belleville and Boulevard de la Villette. Panoramic view. Paris (19th Arr.), circa 1970.
40x50 cm print.
Léon Claude Vénézia
Café "Au Clairon" on Rue du Liban. Paris (20th Arr.), March 1970.
30x40 cm print.
François-Xavier Bouchart
Café "Au point du jour" at the corner of Rue de Belleville and Boulevard de la Villette. Paris (20th Arr.), circa 1970.
30x40 cm print.
François-Xavier Bouchart
Three-wheeled delivery vehicle in front of a café-bar in Belleville district. Paris (19th-20th Arr.), circa 1970.
40x50 cm print.
Léon Claude Vénézia
Handcart in front of a Café-charbon on Rue Sedaine. Paris (11th Arr.), April 1970.
30x40 cm print.
Léon Claude Vénézia
Man delivering coal with a handcart, Rue du Faubourg-du-Temple. Paris (10th Arr.), 1972.
30x40 cm print.
Léon Claude Vénézia
Woman selling vegetables at the Aligre market. Paris (12th Arr.), 1977.
30x40 cm print.
Léon Claude Vénézia
Hotel on Rue Vilin. Paris (20th Arr.), February 1968.
30x40 cm print.
Léon Claude Vénézia
Tramp on a bench. Paris, 1970's.
30x40 cm print.
François-Xavier Bouchart
Alley and gardens in Belleville-Ménilmontant district. Paris (20th Arr.), circa 1970.
40x50 cm print.
Léon Claude Vénézia
Washing line, Villa de l'Ermitage. Paris (20th Arr.), September 1969.
40x50 cm print.
François-Xavier Bouchart
Children playing in the inner courtyard of a building in Lower Belleville. Paris (19th-20th Arr.), circa 1970.
60x80 cm print.
Léon Claude Vénézia
Inner courtyard of a building in Belleville. Paris (20th Arr.), July 1967.
40x50 cm print.
François-Xavier Bouchart
In an inner courtyard in Belleville-Ménilmontant district. Paris (20th Arr.), circa 1970.
40x50 cm print.
François-Xavier Bouchart
Window with birdcages in Belleville district. Paris (19th-20th Arr.), circa 1970.
30x40 cm print.
François-Xavier Bouchart
Wines, coffee and liquors store, Passage Julien-Lacroix. Paris (20th Arr.), circa 1970.
30x40 cm print.
Léon Claude Vénézia
Children crossing the street, Rue des Couronnes. View from a café. Paris (20th Arr.), September 1969.
40x50 cm print.
François-Xavier Bouchart
Café-restaurant in Belleville-Ménilmontant district. Paris (20th Arr.), circa 1970.
30x40 cm print.
François-Xavier Bouchart
Petanque players, Place Fréhel. Paris (20th Arr.), circa 1970.
30x40 cm print.
Léon Claude Vénézia
Entrance of a warehouse in Belleville district. Paris (20th Arr.), circa 1970.
30x40 cm print.
François-Xavier Bouchart
Shoemaker and liquor store, at the corner of Rue Pixérécourt and Passage de la Duée. Paris (20th Arr.), circa 1970.
40x50 cm print.
Léon Claude Vénézia
Laundry drying by a window in Belleville district. Paris (20th Arr.), September 1966.
30x40 cm print.
Léon Claude Vénézia
Belleville district. Paris (20th Arr.), January 1976.
30x40 cm print.
François-Xavier Bouchart
Children in the staircase of Passage Julien-Lacroix. Paris (20th Arr.), circa 1970.
60x80 cm print.
Aware of the imminent destruction of the peculiar social life of these eastern Parisian neighborhoods, where all origins and faiths mingle, François-Xavier Bouchart and Léon Claude Vénézia shared the same desire to leave a precious testimony.
While François-Xavier Bouchart was drawn to architecture and graphic design, Léon Claude Vénézia more naturally gravitated towards the marginalized, not to mention graffiti, undoubtedly influenced by Brassaï, for whom he used to be an assistant photographer. Just like kids tumbling down the stairs of rue Vilin and Envierges wasteland, the two photographers have made the 19th and 20th arrondissements their own playgrounds.
François-Xavier Bouchart
Children on a spiral staircase in Belleville-Ménilmontant district. Paris (20th Arr.), circa 1970.
40x50 cm print.
François-Xavier Bouchart
Interior courtyard with individual gardens and concierge lodge in Belleville-Ménilmontant district. Paris (20th Arr.), circa 1970.
40x50 cm print.
François-Xavier Bouchart
Merry-go-round near Belleville metro station, Boulevard de Belleville. Paris (20th Arr.), circa 1970.
30x40 cm print.
François-Xavier Bouchart
Butcher shop in Belleville district. Paris (19th-20th Arr.), circa 1970.
40x50 cm print.
François-Xavier Bouchart
Chocorêve chocolate dispenser in front of a café in Belleville district. Paris (19th-20th Arr.), circa 1970.
40x50 cm print.
François-Xavier Bouchart
Group of children, rue du Chemin Vert. Paris (11th Arr.), ca 1970.
30x40 cm print.
Léon Claude Vénézia
Old house on Boulevard des Couronnes. Paris (20th Arr.), April 1969.
30x40 cm print.
Léon Claude Vénézia
Children playing on Rue Lauzin’s staircase. Paris (19th Arr.), April 1970.
40x50 cm print.
Léon Claude Vénézia
Children playing wasteland of the Envierges and on Rue Vilin. Paris (20th Arr.), May 1967.
40x50 cm print.
François-Xavier Bouchart
Rue Vilin’s staircase. Paris (20th Arr.), circa 1970.
60x80 cm print.
Léon Claude Vénézia
Itinerant balloon seller, rue Pixérécourt. Paris (19th Arr.), October 1970.
40x50 cm print.
Léon Claude Vénézia
Children playing on Impasse du Puits. Paris (19th Arr.), July 1967.
30x40 cm print.
Léon Claude Vénézia
Children playing in an emergency housing estate. Drancy (Seine-Saint-Denis), 1970.
40x50 cm print.
Léon Claude Vénézia
Young masked girl with her dog, Boulevard Beaumarchais. Paris (3rd Arr.), 1970's.
40x50 cm print.
Léon Claude Vénézia
Children playing in a public garden of Belleville district. Paris (20th Arr.), 1966.
40x40 cm print.
Léon Claude Vénézia
An eccentric character from the Armenian community of Belleville, Avenue Simon Bolivar. Paris (19th Arr.), circa 1967.
40x50 cm print.
Léon Claude Vénézia
Streetsweeper. Rue du Roi-Doré. Paris (3rd Arr.), 1975.
30x40 cm print.
Léon Claude Vénézia
Young gipsy girl running on Rue Titon. Paris (11th Arr.), ca 1970.
60x80 cm print.
François-Xavier Bouchart
Corner of Rue Piat and Rue de Belleville. Paris (19th-20th Arr.), circa 1970.
30x40 cm print.
260 silver prints by Léon Claude Vénézia entered the collections of the Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris (BHVP).
In 2024, François-Xavier Bouchart’s whole collection was donated to the BHVP. Roger-Viollet is the exclusive distributor of photographs by these two artists.
François-Xavier Bouchart
House and modern blocks of flats, Place des Fêtes. Paris (19th Arr.), circa 1970.
40x50 cm print.
François-Xavier Bouchart
Teenagers in a wasteland on Rébeval block, near Rue Rampal. Paris (19th Arr.), circa 1970.
60x80 cm print.
François-Xavier Bouchart
Ruins of buildings after demolition in Belleville district. Paris (19th-20th Arr.), circa 1970.
40x50 cm print.
François-Xavier Bouchart
Children in a wasteland on Rébeval block, near Rue Rampal. Paris (19th Arr.), circa 1970.
40x50 cm print.
Léon Claude Vénézia
Market gardeners and their caravan in front of the Préfecture de Seine-St-Denis constructing site. Bobigny (Seine-St-Denis), ca 1970.
40x50 cm print.
Léon Claude Vénézia
Demolution of the "Chez Paulette" café on the corner of Rue Pixérécourt and Rue des Pavillons. Paris (20th Arr.), April 1974.
30x40 cm print.
François-Xavier Bouchart
Building of the headquarters of the French Communist Party, Place du Colonel-Fabien. Paris (19th Arr.), 1971.
30x40 cm print.
François-Xavier Bouchart
Lift bridge, Rue de Crimée. Paris (19th Arr.), circa 1970.
40x50 cm print.
Léon Claude Vénézia
Interior courtyard with a photographer's sign on Boulevard de la Villette. Paris (10th-19th Arr.), May 1969.
40x50 cm print.
François-Xavier Bouchart
Graffitis on walls of former buildings in Belleville district. Paris (19th-20th Arr.), circa 1970.
50x60 cm print.
François-Xavier Bouchart
Television set in front of an old hairdressing salon in Belleville district. Paris (19th-20th Arr.), circa 1970.
30x40 cm print.
François-Xavier Bouchart
The "Folies Belleville" movie theatre, 8 Rue de Belleville. Paris (20th Arr.), circa 1970.
40x50 cm print.
Léon Claude Vénézia
Graffiti. Paris, 1970's.
24x30 cm print.
Léon Claude Vénézia
Graffiti. Paris, July 1967.
24x30 cm print.
Léon Claude Vénézia
Graffiti. Paris, April 1972.
24x30 cm print.
Léon Claude Vénézia
Graffiti. Paris, May 1969.
24x30 cm print.
Léon Claude Vénézia
Graffiti, Impasse des Mûriers. Paris (20th Arr.), circa 1966.
40x40 cm print.
François-Xavier Bouchart
Posters in Belleville-Ménilmontant district. Paris (20th Arr.), circa 1970.
30x40 cm print.
Léon Claude Vénézia
"Human Justice". Charcoal mural fresco (late 19th century) in the steeple of Notre-Dame-de-la-Croix church in Ménilmontant. Paris (20th Arr.), circa 1967.
40x40 cm print.
Léon Claude Vénézia
"Conclusion: this is what we will be". Charcoal mural fresco (late 19th century) in the steeple of Notre-Dame-de-la-Croix church in Ménilmontant. Paris (20th Arr.), January 1969.
30x40 cm print.
FRANÇOIS-XAVIER BOUCHART
(1946-1993)
François-Xavier Bouchart was born in Bordeaux in 1946 and moved to Paris in 1959. From an early age, he enjoyed producing little comic strips and card games, as he was bored by the classical subjects at school. At the age of thirteen, he received a camera as a gift, which immediately fascinated him. He made his first report on the bridges of Paris during his school holidays.
In 1969, he graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Appliqués et des Métiers d’Arts, a Parisian school for the decorative arts. He lived at 6 rue Rampal in the Belleville district, which he photographed, worried by the destruction threatening the original urban fabric.
From 1971 onwards, he worked on exhibitions for the Centre Georges Pompidou museum in Paris and carried out his own photographic research on Marcel Proust’s places.
In 1975, he won the Prize for Vocation awarded by the Fondation Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet for this black-and-white panoramic work.
In 1981, he won the Mention of the Kodak Photographic Critics’ Award for Voyage en HLM, representing the interior design of social housing in France. In 1982, Marcel Proust, un visage paysage (Marcel Proust, a face landscape) was exhibited during the “Month of Photo” festival held at the Maison de Victor Hugo in Paris.
From 1983 to 1989, he took part in the creation of a center for the history of northeastern Paris (oral history and documentation) in the Parc de la Villette: “La Maison de la Villette”, and from 1987 he was in charge of exhibitions (Le Temps de la Ville), the compiling of the iconographic collection and archive research.
In 1989, he produced the exhibition Two Centuries of Social Progress for the National Congress on Low-Income Housing in Paris.
In 1991, he was responsible for the creation of a cultural centre about paper, prints and artists’ books, in a former forge mill in the Franche-Comté region. The Centre Georges Pompidou exhibited his work on the iron and steel sites of the Lorraine region.
From 1990 to 1993, François-Xavier Bouchart was part of the Archipress agency, and his photographs have been published in numerous magazines (Vogue Décoration, Maison & Jardin, Beaux-Arts, etc.). His work was also published in books such as Marcel Proust, la figure des pays (1982), HLM (1983) or En remontant Belleville (2015).
His photographs are represented in the collections of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the Musée Carnavalet and private collections in France and in the United States.
His whole personal collection was given to the Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris in 2024.
LÉON CLAUDE VÉNÉZIA
(1941-2013)
Born in 1941 in the Bastille district of Paris, Léon Claude Vénézia discovered his passion for photography as a means of expression at an early age. During his training at the “Société Française de Photographie” and the “30x40” (Photograhic Club of Paris), he met the great photographers of the time. It was at the Bibliothèque Nationale, where he attended retrospectives of the works of André Kertérsz and Eugène Atget, that he experienced a real eye-opener. He went on to make the prints for Jean Leroy’s first biography of Atget.
In 1968, he took his first photographs of Belleville upon the request of the French writer Clément Lépidis. From 1968 to 1970, he worked as an assistant to Brassaï with whom he became close friends and who influenced him throughout his career.
In 1974, he obtained his first press card. Now a freelance photographer, he was commissioned by numerous magazines and newspapers, including La Vie, Le Monde or Libération.
In parallel, for the next 40 years Vénézia met many marginalized artists and developed a passion for outsider art. His work Les Anartistes is part of the collections of the Musée International d’Art Naïf in Nice.
His photographic adventures explored the working-class districts, especially Belleville before its brutal “renovation”, witnessing the great architectural and social transformations of Eastern Paris and its close suburbs.
From 1976 to 2012, he organized numerous thematic exhibitions, including Belleville (FNAC-Paris), Poésie et Photographie (Aix-en-Provence), La Traversée des apparences (École Supérieure d’Art, Aix-en Provence), Instants présents (11th arrondissement Paris Town hall). From 1992, he taught photography at the École Supérieure d’Art in Aix-en-Provence for 10 years.
In 2011, the Éditions Parimagine published Le Paris de Léon Claude Vénézia.
The abundant and singular work of this literature and cinema enthusiast brings together some 100,000 prints and negatives, as well as numerous writings.
His archives are represented in various public collections, including the Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris, which holds around 200 silver prints, the Musée Nicéphore Niépce, the Bibliothèque Nationale, the Documentation Française and the Public Information Library of the Centre Georges Pompidou.
According to the Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris, Léon Claude Vénézia belongs among the “photographers of the metamorphoses of Paris, from Atget to the humanist photographers”.