Le Lynx

Abstract

In the years between the two world wars Joseph Quatannens (Diksmuide, 1902-Anderlecht, 1974) along with colleagues such as Jacques Hersleven, Georges Champroux and Germaine van Parys, was a pioneer in the field of Belgium photojournalism. This was a branch of professional photography that accompanied the rise of the illustrated daily and weekly press. At the end of 1929 and the beginning of 1930 Quatannens established himself as a photo-reporter in Brussels and its surrounding region. Circa 1938 he founded an agency of his own, which he called Le Lynx. He took photographs with anecdotal and banal scenes from everyday life as their subject manner, but he also produced others of major historical events. His work reveals not just what was involved in the working practice of a photo-reporter, it also exposes a number of important fault lines in the political, cultural, social and economic history of Belgium and Europe.