Photo : Henri Manuel - ENAP
Henri Manuel, photographer of prisons in the interwar period
A lecture by Fabienne Huard-Hardy, head of the Resource Center on the History of Crimes and Punishments at the National School of Penitentiary Administration
Médiathèque Françoise Sagan (Paris 10th)
About
The photographic collection dedicated to the prisons by Henri Manuel is exceptional for discovering the prisons of that era in images. "Through this presentation of this photographic collection, I invite you to go beyond the images and, through their analysis, to approach what the daily life in prison could have been like at that time, to better understand what is being told to us about this reality. These photographs allow us to look at the prison world of the 30s and shed light on the meaning given to punishment."
Fabienne Huard-Hardy, historian, is currently the head of the Resource Center on the History of Crimes and Punishments at the National School of Penitentiary Administration. In 2017, she published Le manuel des prisons. Regards sur des prisons de l’entre-deux-guerres with Presses de l’Enap.
The Paris City History Committee, the association Histoire et vies du 10e, and the Françoise Sagan media library offer you a cycle of lectures on the theme of detention, in order to complete, enrich, and broaden the subject of the exhibition Prisonnières, les dernières années de la prison Saint-Lazare (1919-1932) presented at the media library.
Our take on this event
Step back into the 1930s to witness the raw and rarely seen reality of Parisian prisons through powerful historical photography. These archives provide a haunting look at how detention was perceived and lived, perfect for anyone curious about the intersection of history, law, and human experience.
