Real/Ideal: Photography in Mid-Nineteenth-Century France

by Karen Hellman (Editor), Sylvie Aubenas (Contribution by), Sarah Freeman (Contribution by), Anne de Mondenard (Contribution by), Karlyn Olvido (Contribution by)

Overview

In the years following the announcement of the invention of photography in 1839, practitioners in France gave shape to this intriguing new medium through experimental printing techniques and innovative compositions. The rich body of work they developed proved foundational to the establishment of early photography, from the introduction of the paper negative in the late 1840s to the proliferation of more standardized equipment and photomechanical technology in the 1860s.
 
The essays in this elegant volume investigate the early history of the medium when the ambiguities inherent in the photograph were ardently debated. Focusing on the French photographers who worked with paper negatives, especially the key figures Édouard Baldus, Gustave Le Gray, Henri Le Secq, and Charles Nègre, Real/Ideal explores photography’s status as either fine art or industrial product (or both), its repertoire of subject matter, its ideological functions, and even the ever-experimental photographic process itself.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781606065105
Publisher:	Getty Publications
Publication date:	08/30/2016
Edition description:	1
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	9.80(w) x 11.80(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Karen Hellman is assistant curator of photographs at the J. Paul Getty Museum.
 
Sylvie Aubenas is the director of the Department of Photographs and Prints at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris.
 
Sarah Freeman is associate conservator of paper conservation at the J. Paul Getty Museum.
 
Anne de Mondenard is curator at the Centre de recherché et de restauration des musées de France, Paris.
 
Karlyn Olvido is a former research assistant at the J. Paul Getty Museum.
 
Paul-Louis Roubert is assistant professor at Université Paris 8 and president of the Société française de la photographie, Paris.
 

Editorial Reviews

…serenely beautiful. More than any other mid-19th-century practitioners, those French artists now seem like the old masters of photography.

The New York Times Book Review - Luc Sante

The quality of discovery inherent in early photography is on full display in Real/Ideal.”—New York Times
 


“Highly recommended.”—Choice
 

From the Publisher

12/01/2016
Following the announcement of photography's invention in 1839, French practitioners experimented with a host of technical and aesthetic innovations, engaging in robust debates about the medium: science or art? What was its potential in either field? Could it only make realistic copies of the world, or did it possess a genuine vision? Perhaps no place and era saw as much energy in this regard as France in the 1840s-50s. This beautifully illustrated catalog, edited by Hellman (assistant curator of photographs, J. Paul Getty Museum), includes scholarly essays by Getty curators, together with curators from French institutions. The photographers explored here—Édouard Baldus, Gustave Le Gray, Henri Le Secq, and Charles Nègre—investigated the possibilities of a short-lived but influential method that employed a paper negative/positive process. This volume provides numerous examples of these negatives and the prints made from them, together with exploration of the architectural survey studies and other subjects photographed. VERDICT Students and scholars interested in learning more about the paper-negative process and the beauty of photographic prints made from it, together with the larger debates about the medium, and of realism in art, will welcome this title. Casual readers will enjoy browsing the stunning architecture images, portraits, and genre scenes.—Michael Dashkin, New York

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