Gamma out of the picture

With a headline that reads "Gamma's future out of focus," Libérationreports that the famous Parisian photo agency, Gamma, has officially announced that it will shortly close. Eyeda Press, which owns Gamma, has reported operating losses of 2.2 million euros. In the light of stiff competition from AFP and Reuters in the news media sector, the agency no longer has the means to fund feature reports. Other entities in the Group, in particular the celebrity photography unit are not under threat. For Libération, the decline in business at Gamma is indicative of a crisis in the world of photojournalism. Co-founded by Raymond Depardon and Gilles Caron in 1966, Gamma was one of the three agencies (along with Sygma and Sipa) that made Paris the world capital of photojournalism in the 1970s. The agency has the largest photo library in Europe.