Photographic Memories - lost corners of Paris: the children of Cité Lesage-Bullourde and Boulogne-Billancourt 1949-1954. Photographs by Marilyn Stafford

This exhibition brought to the Alliance Française Toronto, a series of compelling, rarely seen photographs taken between 1949 and 1954 by photographer Marilyn Stafford in post war Paris.

Internationally published, Marilyn grew up during the 1930s in Cleveland, Ohio USA. In December 1948 Marilyn moved to Paris via New York, and briefly sang with a small music ensemble at Chez Carrère near the Champs Elysees. At the club she met Edith Piaf and also became friends with Robert Capa and Henri Cartier-Bresson, who both encouraged her work as a photographer. Her interest in street photography let her to ‘wander about the streets making photographs. It was not long after the end of the war and very few people had cameras.’ Marilyn photographed the neighbourhoods of the Bastille and Boulogne-Billancourt and her images of children from Cité Lesage-Bullourde near the Place de la Bastille featured in the Alliance Française exhibition provide rare insights into the daily lives of children in one of Paris’ poorest neighbourhoods.