striking images of the 20th ntury, photographsf war and disaster, poticians and performers, artists and portsmentherere 10 million of them a st archive, take by photographers for arench photograph agey. they ceased to be an active photograic aency commissiong and selling piures almost one decade ago all that remains is i arches. now, a nber of the great names is fighting for its life. we have come here to the fnch commercial court. th are seekin protection agnst their creditors. heook these pictures, shocking, and vivid, shocking, these weren libia 2003, but theiowners sayhey can no longer aord this kind of journalism. some photographers have pa a high price. >> 42 years. some of them dying, and some disappr. it is a veryigh price. >>around the world, newspars and magazinehit hard by recessionind it cheaper to fi their pages with celebrities. > they are devoted to ople, and sohat is the place left fothe contempory photographerdoing their jobs, informing the citizensf what is goi on the world? >> the sygma arche is her many of e pictures areeing digitized. it is costing millis, but then,ill gates