Germaine Kanova: A Photographer’s Eye on the Liberation

Organized in partnership with ECPAD (the French Defence Communication and Audiovisual Production Agency), the exhibition is part of the commemorations marking the 80th anniversary of the discovery of the Port-Louis mass grave and the Liberation of Lorient. It presents around fifty photographs that retrace the work of this French photographer. After establishing herself in London, where she portrayed pre-war celebrities, Kanova enlisted in November 1944 as a war photographer, following the advance of the French army during the liberation of France and the campaign in Germany.

The exhibition first presents portraits of celebrities such as Jean Cocteau, Audrey Hepburn, and Arletty, taken during her career as a portrait photographer before and after the war, in both London and France.

The core of the exhibition focuses on her photographic work within the Army Cinematographic Service (November 1944 – May 1945), balancing between military propaganda and a humanistic vision. It notably features a photo-reportage documenting the discovery of the bodies of those executed at the Port-Louis citadel in May 1945, in the context of the liberation of the Lorient pocket.