During the early 1840s, France was honing its skills in archeological and anthropological photography. During this time, the science world was organizing a study of man, which looked at all aspects of the known world. The idea was to take this research and create the museum of natural history. The new director of the project, a man named Serres, immediately asked for some reproductions to be made of the collection of bones and peoples within the current amassed collection. This could be done thanks to the newly invented Dageurreotype. The medium lended itself to scientific reproductions, since the objects were usually stationary and would allow for sharp details to be seen. Over time, part of this collection and works from the now closed Musée National de Arts D’Afrique and D’Oceanie, and the ethnographic department of the Musée de l’Homme came together as part of the newly formed Musée de Quai de Branly. Opened in 2006, MQB is a mix of art and enthography, and the collection features indigenous art, artifacts and research on cultures and civilizations from throughout Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas. Upon the arrival of collections from the Musée de l’homme, a mass rehousing project began to better care for the works that came in, since many were unhoused and unmounted. This projected included the aforementioned daguerreotypes, which are now housed in such a way as to show the publication information on the recto.
Daguerreotypes of the skulls in the collection.
Another view.
I guess I’m finding albums really interesting on this trip and with some similarities between them when you think about it. The collection’s curator, Christine Barthe pulled an album by a sailor named Auguste Houzé l’Aulnoit. Made in 1861 the album begins with personal subject matters, including his friends and other photographers he knew. The album then moves to portraits of the missionaries that he came across in travels. Like the Régnault album at the SFP and the Lartigue album at St Cyr, the photographs vary and change from personal to professional. In this case, l’Aulnoit begins with taking portraits of the locals in the exotic locations he came across. While we know that l’Aulnoit wasn’t an anthropologist by any means, their techniques had become widespread enough for him to be using them for his work later in the album. The locals he photographed and showcased in the album are posed twice, once with a frontal view and once with a side view. L’Aulnoit also produced a second album that focused on his professional works, specifically a series of royal portraits (not of the British royal family). This album further reflects the anthropological style of the day; each page has one photograph, each with its own, neatly written caption that incudes typographical notes. Having the two albums together provides a great comparison when looking at this man’s work and at the shift in his work from personal & local, to professional and international.
Christine Barthe with an album by Auguste Houzé l’Aulnoit.
Barthe then pulled out some prints by Desire Charnay who was an archeologist. Despite the exciting life as an archeologist, as dictated by Indiana Jones, Charnay wanted to have adventures and travel, so he became an envoy photographer for the French government. Beginning with North America, Charnay traveled throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico, handily labeling his photographs as he went. An image of Montmorency Falls in Quebec initially caught my eye, especially for the angle of the shot. I have been to the falls, and almost to the same vantage point that this image was taken from. Knowing that almost 150 years have past since we were both there is somewhat humbling. The MQB also has Charnay’s paper archive from this time, including correspondence, images and planning for his travels. From this we know that Charnay traveled with almost a ton of supplies to photograph with, form the cameras, plates, chemicals and his own water supply. Charnay did occasionally use paper for photographs, although many places he visited had impurities in the water that would pollute the paper as a result. This was a big problem in Mexico, although it didn't deter him very much since he returned many times to the city he fell in love with.
Montmorency Falls by l'Aulnoit.
A scene in Mexico city.
As a side note, amongst the many things that Barthe showed us today, one of the slightly unrelated things that some of us were fascinated by was the book cradle Barthe was using. I have only ever seen them made from either archival boards or plastics, so to see the rolled fabric one that the MQB had was something different. I may try to make this in the future,since it's so adjustable it seemed perfect to seamlessly go from smaller to larger volumes.
We were way to interested in this thing than we should have been.
May the 23rd, part two, with Anne Cartier-Bresson.
Later in the day we arrived once more at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, but this time we went straight upstairs. The Atelier de Restauration et de Conservation des Photographies began its life in 1983 with just two people. The focus was to protect, conserve and restore the photographic collections of Paris. Now, with a staff of 14 people, the ARCP works with all the municipal photograph collections in Paris, approximately 8 million artifacts. These come from 14 museums, 5 libraries, an archive and a smattering of other institutions, including the odd private consignment. Run by Anne Cartier-Bresson, the ARCP's staff are some of the most highly trained in their field. Cartier-Bresson herself teaches part of the conservation studies program at the Institut National de Patrimoine, a program that includes furniture, glass, paintings, textiles, ceramics and photography. This program is specialized from day one, allowing students to focus on one medium.
The ARCP has had a major boost in arrivals in the recent past, and this is due mostly to the city's new Nitrate plan. Nitrate negatives are very much dispersed within the city's various collections, so a new, large project has been undertaken to identify, house and separate them from the rest of the collection. Since this project started, many have been found mixed in with acetate and other materials. Currently, there are roughly 1 million negatives that have been identified in this project, around two tons. The next hope in the project is to relocate them all to an off-site cold storage facility. In the meantime, many negatives are being digitally copied for an electronic archive.
We're getting a demonstration in a montage évidée!
A montage évidée in progress!
Cartier-Bresson was not only nice enough to show us her studio, where we were privy to a montage évidée demonstration, but she also gave us a private tour of the exhibit downstairs in the MEP. The idea of the show was to show the public an idea of how the prints and photographs are made throughout history, and more importantly, that the materiality of the photograph is just as important as the image content itself. The mediums that were being showcased were all ones that are still being used currently, hence the modern pieces of historic process that were alongside the original historic processes. This private tour was a great chance to have some of the display choices explained and elaborated on, including the choice to show many unstable prints under curtains. Cartier-Bresson went on to show us some of the high-tech features this exhibit used to protect the historic material, including some very specific lighting features. LED is the light of choice, since the fear of heat and UV being given off is unnecessary. LEDs were used to light negatives from underneath, and were not only fully computer calibrated, they were attached to a motion sensor that would turn the lights off after people had left that part of the exhibit.
Having Cartier-Bresson's insight to the exhibit was invaluable to us. As a person within the field, being able to ask questions of the curator and organizers of a show can give fantastic insight. This visit was also one heck of a way to finish off the course.
All photographs by A Cook.
All photographs by A Cook.
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