Cécile Schall

Entrepreneur I Manager of the Roger Schall Photography Estate I Specialist in the photography market

Paris, Île-de-France, France

About

Promoting the photographic heritage of my grandfather Roger Schall was my dream! And here I am making it happen thanks to my son Lucas with whom we created Schall Collection in January 2024. When this dream was revealed in 2004, I didn't really know photography. I learned on the job, designed a first exhibition and a first book dedicated to Roger Schall, created the exhibition “The Mountain of Willy Ronis”…Then with fotofever, which I created in 2011, I learned the profession, the market, and developed a network of professionals and amateurs. Covid put an end to this entrepreneurial episode in 2022. It wasn’t easy to make this decision or grieve. But it gave me the energy to embark on this new adventure, the continuation of a family saga born more than 100 years ago, a story of the transmission of an extraordinary heritage, a treasure. A dream come true!

Experience

  • Co-Founder & CEO at Schall Collection
    Mar 2022 - Present · 4 yrs 4 mos

    I established the Schall Collection company as a family endeavor involving my son and father. Our goal is to breathe new life into the legacy of Roger Schall, my grandfather, a 20th-century French photographer who, throughout his career, captured the grace and vitality of his time with iconic photographs of Paris and the wider world. Roger Schall bequeathed to us a collection comprising over 100,000 images, along with thousands of contact sheets, vintage prints, and extensive archives from publications such as Vogue, Vu, Match, Life, and Picture Post. Now recognized as a trailblazer, his photographs continue to captivate and inspire aficionados of art and culture. The mission of Schall Collection is to elevate Roger Schall's reputation to the ranks of the greatest photographers. The endeavors of Schall Collection are geared towards collectors, the general public, and institutions. The goal for the next decade is to increase its value on the art market by a factor of six!

  • fotofever (11 yrs 9 mos)
    • CEO & Founder
      Apr 2011 - Dec 2022 · 11 yrs 9 mos

      fotofever is the first international art fair dedicated to the discovery and collection of photography. 500 galleries from 80 countries and 1600 artists were exhibited in fotofever events in Paris (Carrousel du Louvre), Arles, Brussels (Tour & Taxis) and Lille, welcoming more than 100.000 visitors and buyers. To encourage collecting and help living artists to live from their art, fotofever created the Start to Collect program: * the Apartment: a selection of works presented in a furnished interior * Talks: with experts and collectors, about collecting photography * Guided Tours with an "art advisor" sharing her favorite works * Guide: essentials on the acquisition of photography * Prices displayed next to all artworks What the press says: "The first international exhibition dedicated entirely to the collection of contemporary photography" Beaux-Arts Magazine "A show that positions each amateur as a patron" Connaissance des Arts "The cool fair of the month of photography !" Vogue website: www.fotofever.com FB / IG / TW: @fotofeverparis contact: [email protected]

    • Curator and Sales Director
      Jan 2022 - Feb 2022 · 2 mos

      Exhibition of the work of French photographer Roger Schall curated around the themes of Paris and fashion at the fotofever fair in Bastille Design Center (Paris). Print sales on behalf of Roger Schall's estate.

  • Director, AAF Paris et Bruxelles at Affordable Art Fair
    Jun 2007 - Apr 2011 · 3 yrs 11 mos

    I launched the first Affordable Art Fair in Paris in 2008, then in Brussels in 2009 (Tour & Taxis). The concept of the Affordable Art Fair was initiated by Will Ramsay in London in 1999: it aims to make contemporary art accessible to all with artworks below € 5,000. Building on its success, the AAF extended to all over the world in ten cities : Amsterdam, Brussels, Hamburg, London, Stockholm, New York, Singapore, Hong Kong, Sydney, Melbourne.

  • Curator at SNCF
    Oct 2006 - Apr 2007 · 7 mos

    In collaboration with Terre Bleue and the SNCF communication department, I curated an open-air photography exhibition "Willy Ronis Mountain", to inaugurate the new Gare de Lyon esplanade visited by tens of thousands of travelers during the Winter Holiday Season. The exhibition was inaugurated on February 7, 2007 in the presence of Willy Ronis, Guillaume Pépy (president of the SNCF) and Michèle Blumenthal (Mayor of the 12th).

  • Curator at Hammerson
    Jan 2005 - Jun 2005 · 6 mos

    In collaboration with Patrick Leroux, president of the Apache Conseil communication agency, I curated the photography exhibition "Paris seen by Roger Schall" in the Parisian shopping center Italie 2, part of the European group Hammerson. A selection of 64 unpublished photographs by Roger Schall, edited in large format and on dibond by the Parisian laboratory Dupon, were exhibited across the 3 levels of the Paris shopping center.