Famed for her colour portraits of artistic and intellectual Paris in the 1930s, Gisèle Freund repeatedly declared and wrote that out of prudence she had abandoned all political activity the day she crossed the border into France as a refugee. Her written archives have almost nothing to say on the subject for the prewar period, but turning to her photos – their content as well as their circulation – we find that Gisèle Freund had indeed taken part in a form of political struggle after her arrival in France in 1933. Even if, above all, this means broadening the concept of commitment to embrace the more discreet interpretation of belonging to networks or collective organisations (e.g. journals or associations) that can politically determine each individual’s life path.