Yvette Troispoux

Her extensive body of work, built up over seventy years, also includes photographs of people in everyday settings in the "humanist” tradition.

[2] One of her best-known photographs from these early years, and her most treasured, is the picture of her brother Jean at Montparnasse railway station before he left for Algeria.

[1] In 1953 she joined the Club Photographique de Paris, known ironically as Les 30x40 after a rule about the size of print allowed at national competitions, and in its meetings was an outspoken and principled younger member.

[2] Her friendship with Agathe Gaillard, owner of a pioneering photography gallery, began in the 1970s and was an important thread running through her photographic career.

[1] Gaillard's private views attracted numerous famous photographers, and Troispoux was well-placed to capture shots of people like Gisèle Freund, Brassaï, and Robert Doisneau who called her his photocopine (photofriend).

[2] The 1990 exhibition celebrated 15 years of the gallery's existence by showing Troispoux’ collection of portraits, many of them informal images of photographers in a social setting.

[5] A researcher was funded for a year to work with the collection, and this led to the publication of Mademoiselle Yvette Troispoux by Céline Gautier and Aurélie Aujard (Contrejour 2012).

In the same year a retrospective exhibition at the Musée du Montparnasse invited a range of Troispoux' photographer friends to select their own personal favourites from the collection for public viewing.