1910 – 1979
Of Alsatian origin, René Bertrand went to Morocco for the first time in 1933, before settling there permanently in 1835. From the years 1940, he traveled through Morocco which he photographed systematically, while marketing his photos in his store opened in the new district of Guéliz in Marrakech. After Independence, he participated in the creation of the first Ministry of Tourism under the direction of Ahmed Alaoui. From the years 1960, he visited certain Amazigh tribes of which he took color photographs, precious testimony on the life of the populations at that time. This ethnographic work is illustrated by the book Berber tribes of the High Atlas, made in collaboration with his son André Bertrand. The latter gave the Maison de la Photographie in Marrakech an abundant archive and authorized the digitization of his father's films..
René Bertrand, the photographic work, House of Photography of Marrakech, 2020