PARIS, April 22: An exhibition of rare colour photographs of occupied Paris in World War Two has sparked a controversy in France, with some politicians saying it paints too rosy a picture of life under the Nazis.

Paris deputy mayor Christophe Girard, who heads the city’s culture department, has even suggested shutting down the show of work by French photographer Andre Zucca unless the organisers seek to counterbalance the cheery vision on display.

“It doesn’t explain enough that this was Nazi propaganda, and this makes me vomit... As it stands, we’re looking at revisionist history,” Girard said.

Called “Parisians under the Occupation”, the 270 colour photos depict a wartime Paris with more emphasis on joy than the jackboot -- which Girard says is inappropriate for an occupation still painful in French collective memory.

“We plan to discuss the matter with historians and see if we can modify things to save the exhibition. But if we can’t, I’d like to see it closed,” Girard said.

Photography was forbidden in occupied Paris, but Zucca, a Frenchman who died in 1973, obtained permits and supplies from his employer -- the Nazi propaganda magazine, Signal.

The happy-go-lucky shots include a grand dame on a shopping promenade, sunbathers lounging along the river Seine, chic youths flirting and families spending a day at the races -- life going on as normal in a city prized by the Nazis. Many consider Zucca a collaborator for working where he did, but that didn’t keep throngs of Parisians from packing the municipal historical library housing the photos last weekend.

At the entrance, curators distributed notices explaining how the never-before displayed photos of an easy-going wartime Paris were the fruit of Zucca’s connection with the Nazis. “He owed this ‘privilege’ to his employment by Signal, the German organ of Nazi propaganda,” it said, adding that requirements of 1940s-era colour film meant photos had to be taken in bright, sunny conditions.

—Reuters