This portrait remembers Edmond Volponi (1928–2022), a journalist and photographer associated with the early Avignon Festival. It also presents his images of the town and his former shop in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon.
A witness to the Festival’s early years
After the Second World War, Edmond Volponi began working as a journalist for Le Provençal in Avignon. The young man from Marseille, an enthusiast for theatre and opera, followed the early editions of Jean Vilar’s Festival.
From 1950, he met Jean Vilar’s company and became friends with its actors. Using a simple amateur camera, he photographed Jean Vilar, Gérard Philipe, Jeanne Moreau, Michel Bouquet, Monique Chaumette and Jean-Paul Moulinot. His images record the Festival’s youth and the people who helped establish its reputation.
Journalism and everyday photography
Photography accompanied his journalism career. Edmond Volponi worked for Le Dauphiné Libéré and later became publisher and director of the local newspaper Le Comtadin.
One of his best-known images shows a child drinking at a fountain in Avignon’s old La Balance quarter. La Poste reproduced it on a stamp in 2002.
L’Évasion Imagière and a photographer’s memories
After retiring, he opened a small shop in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, L’Évasion Imagière, where he exhibited photographs and talked with visitors. The images in this feature preserve a memory of that place and his attentive eye for everyday scenes. Edmond Volponi died on 4 November 2022, aged 94.
Edmond Volponi also wrote Alors petit, tu t’es bien régalé ?, an autobiographical account of Marseille’s liberation in 1944, a defining episode of his adolescence.
