Max Théret had a passion for photography which began in 1932. Hunted by the Gestapo, Théret left the Occupied Zone in 1942, moving to Grenoble, where he took up photography as a career. After the war, he trained as a photo laboratory technician, founded his own laboratory, and later constructed the first colour-processing machine in France. In 1951, while working for the telephone company, he founded Economie Nouvelle, a membership discount buying group for products sold through participating merchants.
