The municipal archives of La Seyne-sur-Mer continue their ambitious digitization project of an exceptional photographic collection containing 50,000 negatives, revealing extraordinary testimonies of local history. The Marius-Autran municipal archive service has already digitized more than 10,000 images from the 15,000 interesting views in the collection, continuously uncovering gems from the photographic archive of Fernand Chabert.
Fernand Chabert, the emblematic photographer from La Seyne who died in 2014, immortalized the lives of local residents and events that marked their daily lives from 1947 to 1990. His son Christophe, who took over the family business, donated more than 50,000 negatives to the municipality, preserving four decades of local history. The photographer worked not only as a commercial photographer serving local businesses but also as a freelance photographer for Var-matin newspaper between 1950 and 1970, and occasionally photographed for the city administration.
A surprising discovery emerged during the digitization process: older glass plates from a second collection known as the Giraudeau collection, named after a printer from La Seyne who operated on Armand-Gatti Square in the 1930s. Among these treasures is a stunning monochrome photograph showing a brig apparently at anchor in the port, which a steamship operating between Toulon and La Seyne is about to cross. The scene is dominated on the right by the Atlas, the floating crane that was then the most powerful in the harbor.
One particularly fascinating image from the Giraudeau collection shows the same two-masted vessel photographed during careening, lying along what is now the March 19, 1962 quay. This glass plate photograph, also taken by printer Giraudeau in the 1930s, captures the ship being repaired. The buildings visible on the right in the photograph were later demolished and replaced first by the shipyard's dome, then by the Mercure hotel (formerly Kyriad).
Another remarkable discovery documents a forgotten piece of La Seyne's history: the old municipal slaughterhouse that operated from 1889 to 1970. Located outside the urban area at what is now 382 Pierre-Mendès-France Avenue, where the city's technical services annex currently stands, this facility had been forgotten by history. Fernand Chabert was apparently the only photographer to capture images of this building. Remarkably, sections of the slaughterhouse walls are still standing, supporting the current annex building.
The collection also preserves moments of local social life, including the election of Miss Mediterranean 1966. The photograph shows the winner, surrounded by her two runners-up, posing with a bouquet of flowers and wearing the Miss Mediterranean 1966 sash. The election likely took place on a summer evening at the Tam-Tam dance hall, which wrote the festive history of Saint-Elme during that era. Throughout his long career, Fernand Chabert photographed dozens of beauty queens whose names, unlike his, have been forgotten by history.
One of the most atmospheric images in the collection captures a phantasmagorical scene on Gambetta Street in 1950. Chabert, while documenting the installation of public electric lighting on the street, unknowingly created a fantastic and haunting photograph for posterity. The image evokes the atmosphere of a 1950s film noir, enhanced by a Citroën parked in the left foreground, creating an almost cinematic quality that transforms a mundane municipal project into an artistic statement.
The architectural evolution of La Seyne is also documented through Chabert's lens, including a remarkable 1966 photograph of the gigantic wooden-framed dome of the Maurice-Baquet gymnasium during its construction. This lunar-like image captures the impressive structure that still serves athletes today at the current Baquet-Scaglia omnisports complex, located at 72 Chemin de La Seyne à Bastian. The building gained notoriety in March 2017 when part of its roof was blown away during a storm that hit La Seyne with wind gusts reaching 150 kilometers per hour.
The ongoing digitization project represents a crucial effort to preserve and make accessible the visual heritage of La Seyne-sur-Mer. These photographs serve as invaluable historical documents, capturing not only the physical transformation of the city over several decades but also the social and cultural life of its inhabitants. The project ensures that future generations will have access to this remarkable visual chronicle of a Mediterranean port city's evolution through the mid-20th century.
