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Through approximately hundred and fifty photographs that are presented in this book, we are able
to discover a panorama of the talents which created  the legendary PICTO, among whom: … Edouard Boubat, Frédéric Brenner, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Jean-Louis Courtinat, Raymond Depardon, Ernst Haas, Peter Knapp, Man Ray, Sarah Moon, Mathieu Pernot, Eric Valli, Kimiko Yoshida, and so many others.Texts and interviews by the critic Hervé Le Goff, which also compose this retrospective book, enable us to retrace the tremendous technological mutations which have occurred in the photography field, from argentic photography to pixels and from the negative of the beginnings to the digitalization of images. This documentation brings us to discover the unpublished testimonies of photographers, technicians as well as all those who weave the threads of complicity on a day-to-day basis, which the modern era has not undone.In 1950, Pierre Gassmann created, in rue de la Comète in Paris, the modest laboratory PICTORIAL service. Gassmann was an amateur fascinated by photography and was close to Brassaï. He was an outstanding technician with a charismatic personality, who was supported by his photographer friends (among whom some had just created the Magnum agency). He ventured into an almost unknown commercial business in France: the de luxe edition photography.

After sixty years and some technological revolutions later, the laboratory PICTO pursues its activity and its development by attempting to immortalize the initial wish of its founder: to make of the technician the devoted accomplice of the artist. The balance assessment of this requirement, maintained through six decades, can also be seen today as a significant part of the history of photography. From the famous Classical era of photography to the contemporary digital editions exposed in museums, from the masters of photography to the young talents, this book is an exceptional iconographic compilation for everyone.