GEORGES DUDOGNON. Jean Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and Friends in a Paris Cafe, c. 1960. 11.75 x 9.5" gelatin silver print. Printed c. 1960. Artist and press stamps in black ink on print verso. Inscribed in pencil on verso: Sartre et Simone de Beauvoir.

Georges Dudognon was born in 1922 in La Rochelle. He worked all sorts of jobs and, in 1940, at the start of World War II, he turned printer in the shadows of the underground networks. There, he met the men and women who were to create the free press several years later.

After the Liberation, then 22 years old, he haunted Saint-Germain-des-Pres, choosing photography as his way of recording the exuberance of the times. He photographed Boris Vian and Juliette Greco, future jazz stars and philosophers, actors and artists and those the proper society called "the cellar rats." He also roamed the outskirts of Paris, photographing poverty and slums, and Parisian homeless. The impact of his images derives from his intuitive understanding of the period. In a Saint-Germain cellar or a general's quarters, he was in the right place at the right time because he had understood that history was in the making. His images were published in the major magazines of the day: Samedi-Soir, Action, Combat, France-Dimanche, Paris-Match, Opera and Elle. He died in Paris, France in 2001.

Good. Creases and wear on print corners and edges.