Reg Lancaster was employed as a staff photographer for the Daily Express for 44 years, For many of those years he was based in Scotland. Then in 1965 The Express posted Reg to Paris where he stayed until 1973.

In France it was the student population who were challenging the status quo and railing against the establishment, later to be joined by disenchanted workers. In May a series of student strikes broke out as a number of Universities in Paris and the escalating conflict ended up on the streets.

Reg was there as student protests about the government led by President Charles de Gaulle started in the early spring ’It was an absolutely incredible year’. Reg’s photographs document the riots in progress and the tension between rebellious protesters and riot police.

During his time with the Express Reg photographed many subjects from sports and news to film and TV stars. Among the images shown here are Martin Luther King photographed by Reg on a visit to London in 1964 and Mick Jagger in Saint-Tropez in May 1971 just week before he married Bianca.

Around the world protests for civil liberties and demonstrations against the Vietnam War were happening. It was in the context of this global struggle for political democracy and personal freedom that the Paris Riots and Prague Spring took place.

Fleet Street photographer Reg Lancaster covered both ‘it was a thrilling time to be a photo journalist’