Les 30 × 40

The club produced a bimonthly mimeographed A4 publication Jeune Photographie and regularly organised exhibitions in the lobby of Studio 28, a cinema located at 28, rue Tholozé in Paris.

Amongst its members it boasted six Prix Niépce winners: Jean Dieuzaide, Robert Doisneau, Jean-Pierre Ducatez, Léon Herschtritt, Jean-Louis Swiners and Patrick Zachmann.

The club was formed against a rise in amateurism in French photography amongst a more prosperous, mobile and leisured populace, spurred by a proliferation of clubs and societies and supported by chemical and equipment supplier Kodak, whose factories at Vincennes, Sevran and Chalon-sur-Saône were in full production, and which offered prizes and sponsored magazines for both amateurs and professionals; Photo-Ciné Revue, Ciné-Photo, Le Photographe, and L'Officiel de la photographie.

[6][7] At a time when books on the history of photography were rare, or inaccessible, or centred on technique, the group provided a source of information; Jean-Louis Swiners, a Life magazine subscriber, shared the photographic essays of W. Eugene Smith, and Man Ray and Brassaï themselves presented on occasion, though even they were not immune to criticism from more militant members.

Dealer André Jammes, collector of 19th century prints, showed his collection from the Missions Héliographiques, of Atget, or of neglected photographers from the School of Paris.

Aside from occasional catalogues of their exhibitions,[11] from 1952 the club issued Jeune Photographie, an internal bimonthly of twenty mimeographed and stapled pages which compensated for its lack of pictures with the quality of its writing.