The Bureau 233 press agency founded by Michel Huescar (former salesman for Interpress) and Toni Rubichon (former salesman for Sygma) has moved from the cramped quarters of its early days to a comfortable store-front office in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, near the Porte de Versailles and the Parc des Expositions. While Paris appears to be affirming its dominance on the photographic art market, and seems to have lost its photojournalistic luster, its photo agencies are bustling. Last month, Abaca press moved to the Montparnasse neighborhood, on the boulevard Arago, in a sublet from Gamma-Rapho!

The French capital is also brimming with small dynamic structures
built around distinguished photographers including “Neus” (Olivier
Laban-Mattei, Jean-Luc Luyssen, Arnaud Brunet) or rising star Rémi
Ochlick’s IP3; or initiated by Parisian photo vendors such as Michel
Chicheportiche’s News Pictures or Jean-François (Jeff) Pekala’s
Starface. All are bracing to face the arrival of Getty Images and
Corbis who will be increasing their Parisian operations in 2012. Not
to mention the wire services (AFP, Reuters and soon Sipa-Dapd).
Bureau 233 was created by Michel Huescar and Toni Rubichon. Huescar began as a photo vendor for Interpress in 1984, an agency specializing in television productions, before spending 20 years at Sipa Press.

Michel Puech

You can read the full text on the French version of La Lettre.