The year 1968 was pivotal to the political, social, and cultural histories not only of the United States but of France and many other countries across the globe. The events in Paris that year were part of a decade that saw many protests—in support of the American civil rights movement and feminism, and against American involvement in the Vietnam War, to name a few. Documentary photography published in newspapers and magazines and shown on television played an especially important role in stimulating the ferment. Searing images from the Vietnam War era, such as the Kent State student kneeling next to a fallen protestor, or the picture of a screaming Vietnamese girl fleeing napalm as she runs toward the camera, powerfully affected attitudes toward that conflict and the student protests against it.
Less familiar but similarly revealing documents of a famously turbulent moment are Serge Hambourg’s photographs of the protests against the conservative government of General Charles de Gaulle in Paris in 1968. During this year, Hambourg was working as a photojournalist for the weekly magazine Le nouvel observateur. Some of his images of the demonstrations were printed in the magazine; most of them, however, are being seen for the first time in this exhibition, organized by the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College. The exhibition is on view in the Theater Gallery.
