Photography Collection

Presenting the work of more than 500 fine art photographers from every continent, the 104 galleries and publishers gathered at the Carrousel du Louvre offer an overview of the medium from the mid-19th century to the early 21st. On view are examples of the most diverse practices, styles and techniques, including documentary work, “painterly” photography, fashion shoots, photoreportage, etc.

Early Photography (1839 - 1914)

The UK’s Robert Hershkowitz gallery, specializing in the work of early masters, offers rare work from the medium’s first years:
• An 1843 view of the York Minster Cathedral by William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877), who in 1840 invented Calotype, a printing process that combined the concepts of paper negative and latent image on which modern photographic practice is founded.
• A landscape by Charles Nègre, part of a series he did in the South of France in 1852, typical of his naturalistic, pre-Impressionist style.
• “The snowy marshlands,” an 1893 work by Peter Henry Emerson (1856-1926), founder of the London Camera Club and pioneer of British pictorialism. The gallery will also offer a rare 1910 platinum print by Frederick Evans, “York Minster - Door to Chapter House,” in which this British photographer, a religious philosophy adept close to the Symbolist movement,
focuses on the motif of the spire. Paying hommage to Italy, Charles Isaacs Photographs
(New York) presents topographic views of ancient sites taken in 1852/1853, most notably “Pompeii: temple ruins” ($10,000) by Louis-Alphonse Davanne (1824-1912).The photographer trained as a chemist, was a member of the Calotype circle at Rome’s Greco café. Also on show is “Temple of Jupiter, Roman Forum” ($30,000) by Firmin-Eugène Le Dien and Gustave Le Gray.

Kicken from Berlin unveils a rare series by an emblematic figure of 19th-century European Pictorialism, the Austrian Heinrich Kühn (1866-1944), honoured by Alfred Stieglitz with a show at his legendary 291 Gallery in New York. Made circa 1899, these large-format landscapes (a spectacular size for the time) are testament to Kühn’s virtuosity in the use of gum bichromate prints, which made it possible to greatly vary the range of values within a picture. In these
landscapes, the contrasting tones - from very dark to very light - in the manner of Impressionist painters, create an emotionally-charged image. Kühn’s Symbolist-inspired 1907 “Nude Study” (platinum print on Japanese paper - 36,000 euros) is on view at the Johannes Faber gallery (Vienna).

The Daniel Blau gallery (Munich) examines the early days of colour photography with a selection of rare autochromes, including a 1907 still life by the Lumière brothers, who invented the process earlier that year; a view of Notre Dame Cathedral at sunset made in 1909 by Léon Gimpel (1878-1949), a photographer for the magazine L’Illustration who also shot
previously unshown colour views of Paris in the early 1900s; a portrait of an Italian cardinal by Franklin Price Knott (1854-1930) and a 1930 forest scene by Robert Dasché (1907-1988).
The autochrome was a single-print process best seen against the light or in projection.The Lumière brothers said about it , “Let’s not restrict ourselves to making it produce dazzling tonalities; let us instead turn our gaze to the great masters of the landscape like Cazin, Monet and the divine Corot.” Inevitably, this technology raised the questions on the relationship between photography and painting. The Lumière brothers’ many still lives brought
out the full potential of the process,especially its ability to render sharp images and finely nuanced colours.

Baudoin Lebon gallery (Paris) has invited Lindsey Stuart (Bernard Quaritch, Ltd in London) to show 19th Century Orientalist photographers: Hill & Adamdson, William Gundry, Robertson & Beato, Bechard, Geiser…

The Lumière des Roses gallery (Montreuil) is exclusively concerned with anonymous amateur photography of the 19th and 20th centuries.This is the only gallery in France to specialize in this field. Photos taken from family albums and collections, dating from 1890 to 1940, bring back to life those who have been lost and forgotten,recreating a narrative of their private daily lives.

Paris Photo, 15th - 18th November, Carrousel du Louvre, Paris