François Kollar
Born in Slovakia in the late 1920s, François Kollar became a professional photographer and acquired his
technique by working in the studios and agencies of Bernès, Marouteau & Co., Draeger, Chevojon and Lecram.
He experiments with commercial and groundbreaking photography since the beginning. He became famous
for corporate reporting, shooting ads for Omega, Christofle, Hermès and Worth and Coty perfumes. He spent
many years with magazines, including Harper’s Bazaar, L’Illustration, Voilà and Plaisir de France, and with artist
Paul Iribe and artistic director André Vigneau.
From 1931 to 1934, he produced significant documents for Horizons de France on the workplace, the best
shots of which were reproduced in a now-legendary publication, “France is working.” He was a reserved
photographer, midway between the radically simplified modernism of Bauhaus and humanism. His fashion and
advertising photographs for Schiaparelli, Chanel and Lelong confirmed him as a “look worker.” Posing models
and staged objects reflect his attitude to photography: not to exaggerate, not to betray. His sense of measure is
also reflected in his portraits of the day’s personalities.
Kollar doesn’t walk the walk of traditionalism in photography. Photomontages, superimposing and solarisations
have their place in his demanding, inspired research.
