Bomb, camera, darkroom

Bomb, camera, darkroom

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Exactly 30 years ago, on April 13, 1985, the Reuters News Pictures Service had been in existence for just a few weeks when a bomb destroyed its Paris bureau.

Regional Pictures Editor Mal Langsdon recalls the incident, which happened long before digital photography and the Internet.

. Paris, France. Reuters/Reuters Photographer

In late 1984, the U.S news agency UPI sold its international pictures operations to Reuters. The logistics of suddenly accommodating pictures operations within dozens of existing Reuters offices around the world was never going to be easy.

Paris was no exception, and until this could be achieved, Reuters Pictures remained at the old UPI bureau on the third floor of a Haussmannian building on Rue des Italiens in central Paris. Our neighbours in the narrow pedestrian street off the main Boulevard des Italiens were daily newspaper Le Monde and the Israeli Bank Leumi.

. PARIS, France. Reuters/Reuters Photographer
Police inspect the damage at the Bank Leumi.

In the early hours of April 13, the Reuters night editor tipped me off that a bomb had exploded at the Israeli-owned Bank Leumi. Realising this was directly across from our pictures bureau, I alerted our staff and we all raced to the bureau at dawn.

Two bombs caused extensive damage but no casualties. Police said the left-wing urban guerrilla group Action Directe claimed responsibility for the attack against the National Immigration Office nearby.

. Paris, France. Reuters/Reuters Photographer

The blast had shattered every window in the street and the vacuum had literally sucked out the contents of the surrounding offices into the street below. As we negotiated our way through the police line, we recognised various pieces of our furniture and equipment strewn amongst the scattered wreckage.

After the UPI purchase, the first three months had been a frantic push to establish ourselves on the news pictures market. We were now fully active. Coverage, at this point, largely focused on the almost-nightly attacks by several left-wing urban guerrilla groups including Action Directe.

. PARIS, France. Reuters/Reuters Photographer

Inside our office, shards of glass covered everything and ruptured air vents spilled intestine-like piping from gaping holes in the ceiling. The contents of filing cabinets, ripped open by the blast, littered the floor. The photographic darkrooms were mostly undamaged, but a thick layer of plaster dust and shattered glass covered everything.

The first priority for us was to cover the event as journalists and get our pictures on the wires. The dusty-faced Reuters crew grabbed whatever was useable and headed on foot to my apartment. We struggled up three flights of steep stairs with the heavy metal cases and set up a makeshift darkroom in my bathroom.

. PARIS, France. Reuters/Reuters Photographer
A view shows a damaged 16S news photo transmitter inside the Reuters News Picture Service.

Our pictures transmission switchboard, used to connect to provincial photographers and other colleagues, was now a wreck of torn wires and cracked circuit boards. Fortunately equipment used to set up remote news events, such as picture transmitters and a portable darkroom, was housed in tough metal travel cases. It was pulled from the rubble dented but intact.

That allowed us to get to work in the makeshift darkroom at my apartment, where we processed films from the explosion and prepared transmission prints. Our picture transmitter was connected to my phone line using crocodile clips, turning the living room into the temporary Reuters Pictures transmission centre.

. Paris, France. Reuters/Reuters Photographer
Fire crew push their truck on the Boulevard des Italiens in the Opera district.

In the following days we continued to work out of my nearby apartment where our photographers periodically arrived at the door with their films. My wife, Dorean, would bring sandwiches while we continued to assure the coverage of Paris events from my home-cum-newsroom.

Thankfully, a few weeks later my home life returned to normality when we finally moved into new office space at the main Reuters Paris bureau at 101 rue Reaumur in the Sentier district.

. PARIS, France. Reuters/Reuters Photographer