2024 is the year of the 80th commemoration of the Liberation of France. To mark the occasion, the public will be inundated with historical images. When it comes to images of conflict, photography has played a pioneering role. How do some photographs become true icons? This is what our presentation will try to reveal through its discussion of four of the most famous photographers of the events of the summer of 1944 in France and Germany.

Robert Capa whose photographs of the Normandy landings, with American soldiers crawling through the water, turned him in to the father of photojournalism. Tony Vaccaro, photographer and GI, who bore witness to the joyful atmosphere of the Liberation of Paris. The familiar photo of a GI surrounded by adoring French women became an iconic image of the liberation of Europe in 1944. John G. Morris who took more personal pictures capturing the daily life of that fateful summer. Lee Miller, fashion model, artistic collaborator and muse of Man Ray who became a war correspondent and who drew on her Surrealist training to translate the unspeakable tragedies of war.

Through images which became global icons, each of these photographers tried to answer the question: What is the nature of war, how and why should we show it?