AP Photographer Jean-Jacques Levy
Jean-Jacques Levy worked for the Associated Press from 1945 into the 1980s. Based in Paris, but frequently travellng, he witnessed and captured many historic moments for the AP. Below is just a sample of the multitudes of photos he took during his career.
The following extracts are taken from “On the AP Newsphotos Front in Paris” by Michael O’Reilly Nash, published in AP World, Summer 1965.
“When World War II broke out Jean-Jacques, whose home was in Alsace, was a student. Forced to flee in 1943 to escape the Gestapo, he crossed the Pyrenees on foot in mid-winter and landed in a Spanish gaol. While there he learned Spanish through the wall from the man in the next cell, who in turn learned French from him. Finally, he wound up in the U.S. Air Force, and that’s where he got his photographic training.
He had come over from the U.S. Air Force photographic school in Astoria, Long island, N.Y., on the same boat with Henry Cassidy, then AP chief of bureau in Moscow. Cassidy brought Jean-Jacques around to the Paris bureau to see if we needed a good photographer – and we did.”
Gardeners work near the Eiffel Tower in Paris on Feb. 4, 1946, taking advantage of Paris’ first spring weather. (AP Photo/Jean-Jacques Levy)
A vendor selling multi-colored balloons stops for a woman and a baby in front of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France, on Sept. 15, 1955. (AP Photo/Jean-Jacques Levy)
Two security guards assigned to patrolling the Luxembourg Palace during the present Peace Conference, pause to chat on Aug. 30, 1946. Both armed firemen and police guard the delegates against any possible harm. (AP Photo/Jean-Jacques Levy)
Spanish artist Pablo Picasso listens to the translation of a speech at the World Congress of Partisans of Peace in Paris, France on April 23, 1949. (AP Photo/Jean-Jacques Levy)
Leo Valentin, French warrant officer, demonstrates his "birdman" suit at the Villacoublay Airfield near Paris, France on April 15, 1950. (AP Photo/Jean-Jacques Levy)
American actors Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy pose in front of a poster which announces their billing at the Lido night club in Paris, France on Oct. 28, 1947. (AP Photo/Jean-Jacques Levy)
“As a young man Jean-Jacques Levy flew off, full of energy, to cover the war in Indochina… Now he is the “doyen” of the select group of photographers accredited to the presidential Elysee Palace and has toured Mexico and South America with Charles de Gaulle.
He has carried his camera through virtually all of Europe and Africa, [and] covered interminable strife at home and abroad."
Jean-Jacques Levy, center, Associated Press staff photographer from the Paris bureau on temporary assignment, March 16, 1951, gets a ride up the Red River on a motor boat flying the French and Vietnamese flags. A soldier is at left with Jean Marie Juge, correspondent of Agence France-Presse, at right. (AP Photo)
Fishermen at work in submerged rice field near Saigon, around Feb. 3, 1951. (AP Photo/Jean-Jacques Levy)
A soldier of the French Union forces stands guard as a truck passes over a temporarily repaired bridge, on March 18, 1951. The bridge was blown up by the Viet Minh to interrupt the lines of supply between Saigon and Da Lat. (AP Photo/Jean-Jacques Levy)
Saigon, situated on the Saigon River shown crowded with sampans, on Feb. 3, 1951. In the left foreground is a drinking water vendor’s sampan filed to the brim with clear water. (AP Photo/Jean-Jacques Levy)
General Nhiek Tioulong, left, and Ta Quang Buu, embrace after signing the Cambodian armistice at the Geneva Peace Conference in Switzerland on July 21, 1954, after 75 days of talks on Indochina. The agreements reached in Geneva ended a war which lasted nearly eight years. (AP Photo/Jean-Jacques Levy)
Patrice Lumumba, the Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo, signs the act of independence, in Leopoldville on June 30, 1960. At right is Gaston Eyskens, Prime Minister of Belgium, who signed the act on behalf of Belgium. (AP Photo/Jean-Jacques Levy)
The hulks of burned out vehicles are strewn in the streets of Paris' Latin Quarter on May 25, 1968, following a general strike and student riot that left the city with a war-torn appearance. (AP Photo/Jean-Jacques Levy)
Le Duc Tho speaks about the signing of the U.S.- North Vietnam agreement on Vietnam, in the Paris International Conference Center, on June 13, 1973. (AP Photo/Jean-Jacques Levy)
Thousands line the street where the motorcade of French President Georges Pompidou, left, and Ivory Coast President Felix Houphouet-Boigny passes on Feb. 7, 1971, in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. (AP Photo/Jean-Jacques Levy)
Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai, left, and French President Georges Pompidou toast during a banquet on Sept. 16, 1973, in Shanghai, China. The host, Vice-Chairman Wang Hongwen, is pictured between them. (AP Photo/Jean-Jacques Levy)
“Levy has also covered a great number of less warlike assignments including royal marriages, the coronation, the Winter Olympics, Winston Churchill’s funeral, all of De Gaulle’s state visits, several Cannes film festivals and so on through the whole category of the work of the Compleat Photographer.”
Members of the Canadian Olympic Alpine Ski team get set to take off for a practice session on Feb. 8, 1952, at Rodkleiva, near the site of the forthcoming Winter Olympics in Oslo, Norway. From left to right are: Andre Bertrand, Bob Richardson, John Griffin, coach Harvey Clifford, Gordon Morrison and George Merry. (AP Photo/Jean-Jacques Levy)
The flag draped coffin of Sir Winston Churchill is borne away on the shoulders of Guards Officers down the steps at the front of St. Paul's Cathedral on Jan. 30, 1965, after the funeral in London. The cortege was followed by members of the Churchill family. (AP Photo/Jean-Jacques Levy)
French Foreign Minister Georges Bidault, seated left, listens as Britain's Princess Elizabeth gives her address in French outside the Musee Galliera, on May 14, 1948, in Paris, France. She opened an exhibition celebrating Eight Centuries of British Life in Paris. Seated in uniform at right is the Duke of Edinburgh. (AP Photo/Jean-Jacques Levy)
America’s First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy, and Amelia Caramanlis, wife of the Greek Prime Minister, pose in front of the Parthenon, on June 12, 1961, in Athens, Greece. (AP Photo/Jean-Jacques Levy)
Actor-singer Maurice Chevalier is shown in front of his house in Marnes-La'Coquette, on Nov. 14, 1963, near Paris, France. (AP Photo/Jean-Jacques Levy)
Text from “On the AP Newsphotos Front in Paris” by Michael O’Reilly Nash, published in AP World, vol. 20, no. 2, Summer 1965.
Photos by Jean-Jacques Levy
The AP Corporate Archives contributed to this post.