History
About / Timeline
In January 1950, Pierre Gassmann put together a small team of enthusiasts, including his wife, France Gassmann, who was responsible for retouching. Together they opened PICTORIAL SERVICE in the 7th arrondissement. The first darkroom consisted of six enlargers arranged around a long tank of vats.
The first clients were friends, members and relatives of the young Magnum Photo agency. Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, Chim, William Klein, Willy Ronis, Robert Doisneau and Edouard Boubat made a habit of lingering in the laboratory and discussing with the printers how best to use their negatives.
These exchanges on the quality of values and contrasts, this bond between photographer and printer, remain founding principles of what was soon definitively named PICTO.
Picto flourished in the wake of professional photography in the press, fashion and advertising sectors. Colour, already widely used in the United States, made its way to Europe.
Edy Gassmann, Pierre’s son, decided to join this sector and opened a colour lab in Montparnasse in 1963. With the help of Paulette Gassmann, his wife, in human resources management, he planned to multiply the number of specific activity sites.
Picto Front de Seine opened in 1969, followed in 1984 by the prestigious print shop on Rue de Rennes. In 1987, Picto created Picto Synthèse at the Front de Seine which laid the first foundations for professional digital services. The creation of a laboratory mainly devoted to black and white and fine art photography in 1989 in Bastille was welcomed with enthusiasm by professionals and institutions alike, who recognized it as a partner of the Mois de la Photo in Paris.
The development and mastery of digital technologies led to the conversion of all Picto production sites under the impetus of Philippe Gassmann, Edy’s son, and Michel Vaissaud, production manager, while maintaining almost all the traditional gelatin silver-based services.
The company expanded and innovated again through various acquisitions and internal development. Five subsidiaries were opened in France and abroad, and PICTO affirmed its position as market leader.
After Edy Gassmann’s accidental death in 2004, Paulette Gassmann took over the presidency of the board of directors of Picto, and Philippe Gassmann, general and commercial director, took over the direction of the company.
When digital technology appeared, all the players in the photographic industry had to reinvent themselves, starting with the photographers. The financial equilibrium of the laboratory was disrupted. Film development and slide duplication, which ensured the profitability of the laboratory, died out. It was necessary to reinvent itself while continuing to meet the expectations of photographers and advertisers. This took Picto 10 years, from 2002 to 2012.
Picto deploys several businesses that complement its historical activity of film development. To innovate technologically and integrate Internet solutions into its model, Picto enables customers to have direct access to all the services offered by the company from an online printing platform (silver halide printing, pigment printing and large format UV and latex printing, and associated finishes), and allows companies to structure their image communication needs with the help of a dedicated media library hosted on Picto’s servers.
In 2015, market consolidation was on the agenda Picto became a major player in high-end photographic images in France for photographers and luxury advertisers. It is in this context that the company Janvier – Analogue was taken over. This logical but also passionate merger enabled Picto to offer a creative retouching solution in addition to the technical retouching that Picto had offered for 45 years.
Picto resumed its international expansion by opening a production studio in New York, in the heart of Manhattan. Picto New York inaugurated its activity with European luxury brands, thus ensuring the visual consistency of their international campaigns in North America. Picto New York is a fine example of our growth ambitions and is the concrete expression of the creation of Picto Foundation to accompany and perpetuate lab support for photographers.
Taking advantage of digital, the internet, streamlining and making the transition, working tirelessly to satisfy our clients and maintain our position is our mindset today.