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.