Walter Carone

Walter Carone, born July 19, 1920 in Genoa, and died May 29, 19823, was a French photojournalist, specializing in celebrity photographs and having spent most of his career at Paris Match. He was also one of the founding members of Photo magazine.

Walter Carone was born in July 1920 in Genoa, where his father was a neighborhood photographer. The family went into exile in Cannes, mainly because of “poverty and fascism”. His father specializes in wedding and banquet photography. He trains his son in the technique, wishing him to take over. Walter Carone takes his first photos around the age of 15, with a Contax in 50 mm. Then photographs tourists on the beach, to sell them his prints. When the Second World War arrived, he closed his studio and became a traveling photographer. He meets a young woman of 16 who will become his wife in April 1942, and will be an actress under the name of Monique Artur. He is deported to Germany following a denunciation, but manages to escape before the border. In 1945, he went to Paris equipped with a Leica, two lenses and a few reels of film. He saves to be able to get a second-hand Rolleiflex, unobtainable during the destitution of the post-war period. The majority of his photos until the mid-1950s will be taken with a Rolleiflex. He is hired by the newspaper France Dimanche. It covers more than seven hundred topics in three years. For Roger Thérond, “Walter Carone launched neo-realism in photography. His photos of Doctor Marcel Petiot at his trial in 1946 caused a scandal. In 1948, he managed to persuade Miss Romania 1948 to allow himself to be photographed completely naked.

Noticed by André Lacaze, head of information for the future Paris Match, he was hired in January 1949 for the first issue. 1950, report on the actor Michel Simon with Catherine, his 28-year-old monkey, doing weights and dumbbells. In 1952, a series of 18-year-old Brigitte Bardot in a leotard and fishnet stockings on the roof of the building where she lives with her parents in Paris. 1956, Grace Kelly’s wedding photos with Prince Rainier of Monaco. He then carried out around 200 photographic reports a year. In 1956 he became head of the photo department of Paris Match. In 1957, he was appointed deputy editor. He publishes twelve pages on Khrushchev in his dacha near Moscow. He married secondly and had two children (including Bruno Carone, musical artist, who was a member of the group Stinky Toys in the 1970s.)

In 1968, in solidarity with journalists who wanted to create a society of editors, he was fired with them, as well as Roger Thérond, by Jean Prouvost. He then created with Roger Thérond and André Lacaze, within the framework of Filipacchi publications, the monthly Photo, the magazine “professionals at the service of amateurs”. He works for several agencies at the same time. He introduces Bettina Rheims to photography, which sometimes assists her. He was appointed editor in 1972. In 1979 he launched the magazine Photo Journal with Georges Bardawil, and published the book Le Portrait the following year with Chenz.

He died of cancer in 1982. In 1992, Serge Bramly devoted a book8 to him, a biography with many photos, including several unpublished.