Imaging Paris: Documenting May 1968


Protesters march down Boulevard Saint Michel on May 10, 1968. The banner reads: “Sorbonne Teachers Against Repression. [Photo by Serge Hambourg/via Art Knowledge News]

French photojournalist Serge Hambourg documented the turbulent student revolt in Paris in the spring of 1968  for the weekly magazine Le nouvel observateur. His images have been assembled in an exhibition organized by the Hood Museum of Art at
Dartmouth College. Many can be seen in an online slide show.

“It was so exciting,” Hambourg told NPR’s Syvlia Poggioli. “Everybody has some complaint against the government, so everybody has reason to complain and to fight — a worker, a student, a old guy, a young guy,” as the photo below shows.

Student leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit raises his arm for silence to allow poet Louis Aragon to talk to students on a megaphone. [Photo by Serge Hambourg/via NPR]
Student leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit raises his arm for silence to allow poet Louis Aragon to talk to students on a megaphone. [Photo by Serge Hambourg/via NPR]

See more of Serge Hambourg’s photos of Paris May 1968.

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