On March 27, Frédéric Mitterrand, French Culture and Communication Minister, launched the AraGo web portal, that had been previously announced during a press conference in Arles on July 4, 2010. 
The name AraGo, the Minister reminded the audience, was selected in homage and, thanks to the conviction of François Arago,that emerged several months later”.

“The birthplace of photography, France holds an infinite number of collections and photographic archives. These archives, by nature very diverse, are sometimes in state collections, museums, or libraries, but most often are in private hands, housed by their authors, in businesses, or in associations…”

It is in this spirit that Daniel Barroy, head of the Photography Mission, gathered on April 4 at the National Art History Institute (Inha) the heads of public or private collections, museums, libraries, archival services, historians and curators… to make a professional presentation of the web portal. The gathering was designed to present the portals infrastructure that is linked to the photographic agency of the Réunion des Musées Nationaux et du Grand Palais (Rmn-GP) and its development, and is run internally by Anne de Mondenard.

Bernard Perrine
Bernard.Perrine1@orange.fr