In March 1970, Paris launched an amateur photography competition called 'C’était Paris en 1970' to document the city amid rapid urban development. A grid system divided Paris into 1,755 squares, and a photographer was assigned to each square during May 1970, resulting in 91,655 photographs. A selection of these images is now on display at the Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris until 7 October 2026, capturing everyday life—from a game of pétanque to cafe society on the Champs-Élysées—alongside the city's transformation.
The exhibition matters because it preserves a unique, crowdsourced archive of Paris at a pivotal moment of modernization, showing neighborhoods that have since been destroyed and ways of life that no longer exist. The photographs offer an unfiltered, democratic view of the city, contrasting black-and-white and color images to challenge preconceptions of the 1970s. This project highlights how amateur photography can serve as a vital historical record, documenting both the physical and social changes of a major capital.