Roger-Viollet, a reference historical archive in Europe.
The famous French photo agency distributes its own extensive heritage collections, the collections of the museums of the city of Paris and represents the photographic collections of independent photographers
With a total of over 6 million photographs the collection covers 150 years of French and international history: world events, fine arts, portraits of artists and celebrities, arts, fashion and science, politics and everyday life.
Beyond photography the collections include reproduction of other documents dating back from antiquities to the end of the XXth century
The agency was established in 1938 by Hélène Roger-Viollet and her husband Jean Fisher. The collection started off with Henry Roger, Hélène’s father’s production and the 50,000 prints which were bought together with the agency premises, located in Paris Saint Germain des Prés, which is still the company’s principal place of business.
Over the years, the agency ‘s founders acquired various collections composing one of the largest historical photographic collection in Europe. At the death of its founders in 1985, the collections were bequeathed to the City of Paris and in 2005, the agency joined the “Parisienne de Photographie” now a public company. Through this partnership the agency provides on demand reproduction among the 3 million works of arts held in the City’s 15 museums
Since the early 2000s, the agency also distributes the work of several French and international photojournalists broadening its scope to the second part of the 20th century. Over 600 000 of the collections highlights are digitized and available on www.Roger-Viollet
Roger-Viollet is a key documentary to history of Europe as well as an extensive panorama of the Arts.
Roger-Viollet is a brand of Parisienne de Photography, a local public company controlled by the City of Paris.
