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LACAN, ERNEST
his criticism was exceptional in challenging the limits
of what could be considered artistry by including works
beyond the scope of other critics. In reviewing the
images of English asylum patients taken by Dr. Hugh
Welch Diamond, for example, Lacan boldly declared
that they “can be ranked, in their execution, among the
most beautiful photographic productions.”
Given his links to Parisian art circles, Lacan played
host to regular photography salons in his Paris home
in the 1850s. These informal gatherings bolstered the
French photographic community, especially during the
crucial period between the dissolution of the Société
héliographique in 1851 and the founding of the Société
française de la photographie in 1854. Open to an eclec-
tic mix of photographers, writers and other artists, his
salons usually included displays of recent photographs
made by guests, thereby helping to reinforce the link
between photography and aesthetic discourse.
In 1856 Lacan published Esquisses Photographiques
[Photographic Sketches], a collection of several of his
La Lumière reviews as well as articles he had written
elsewhere on photography’s origins and uses. The book
was a turning point in Lacan’s career, as he would
thereafter concentrate his writing more on technical
innovations and business reporting. He also took on
numerous outside projects, like contributing introduc-
tions to books on photography by Claude-Félix Abel
Niepce de Saint-Victor (1855) and Alphonse Louis
Poitevin (1862), editing a popular weekly, Le Moniteur
Universel [The Universal Monitor], becoming scientifi c
editor of La Vie Moderne [The Modern Life] (1859) and
serving as French correspondent for The Photographic
News in London.
At the end of 1860, after disagreements with Gaudin,
Lacan left La Lumière to co-found a competing journal,
Le Moniteur de la Photographie, with Paul Liesegang,
German publisher of Photographisches Archiv [Pho-
tographic Archive]. Subtitled “International Journal of
the Progress of the New Art,” the fortnightly periodical
fi rst appeared on 15 March 1861. Primarily addressed
at professional photographers, Lacan augmented the
editorial staff by inviting respected commercial photog-
raphers and printers like Antoine Claudet, Louis Désiré
Blanquart-Evrard and André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri
to contribute articles. Lacan wrote a regular column,
reported on technical matters and detailed new applica-
tions of photography in fi elds like criminal investigation
and military strategy.
While he continued to review major photography
exhibitions like that held at the Universal Exposition,
Lacan was less concerned with individual photogra-
phers or styles. Perhaps refl ecting his journal’s stronger
commercial slant, he expounded on aesthetic trends
within the medium as a whole and often attributing
these to technological innovations rather than personal
creativity.
In 1870, Liesegang left Le Moniteur de la Photogra-
phie and Lacan became sole proprietor. He fell gravely
ill in the summer of 1878 but continued writing and
editing up to his death the following January. His long-
time colleague, Léon Vidal, succeeded him as editor
and the journal remained in print under various owners
until 1914.
Although the writings of other early critics of pho-
tography—like Charles Baudelaire and Lady Elizabeth
Eastlake—have received greater attention, Lacan’s
work as a whole provides a comprehensive view of the
evolving attitudes and aims that marked photography’s
fi rst decades. His versatility and energy, not to mention
his enduring faith in photography’s benefi ts to society,
were rarely matched in his lifetime.
Stephen MonteiroBiography
Emmanuel Ernest Auguste Lacan was born in Paris,
France in 1828 to Auguste Théophile Lacan and Marie
Josèphe Monodé Devassaux. He studied painting un-
der Léon Cogniet and apprenticed in Cogniet’s studio
in the 1840s. He worked as a librarian before turning
to journalism in 1851, helping found the photography
journal, La Lumière, where he was editor and a regular
contributor until 1860. He published a collection of
his photography writings, Esquisses Photographiques
(1856), and contributed to several books on photogra-
phy. He also published poetry and fi ction, including
Le Mort de l’Archevêque de Paris [The Death of the
Archbishop of Paris] (1849) and Les Petites Gens
[The Little People] (1870). He edited and wrote for Le
Moniteur Universel from the 1850s through the 1870s,
was scientifi c editor for La Vie Moderne (1859), and
contributed to other journals published by the Société
des Publications Périodiques. He was also a correspon-
dent for The Photographic News. Lacan co-founded
the weekly journal Le Moniteur de la Photographie in
1861, which he published until his death. He was mar-
ried to Camille Valentine Salle and died in Paris on 18
January, 1879.
See also: Société Héliographique Française; Nègre,
Charles; Fenton, Roger; Baldus, Édouard; Aguado de
las Marismas, Comte Olympe-Clemente-Alexandre-
Auguste and Vicomte Onesipe-Gonsalve; Wey,
Francis; Diamond, Hugh Welch; Société Française de
Photographie; Niépce de Saint-Victor, Claude Félix
Abel; Poitevin, Alphonse Louis; Liesegang, Paul
Eduard; Antoine Claudet, Blanquart-Evrard, Louis-
Désiré; Disdéri, André-Adolphe-Eugène; Baudelaire,
Charles; and Rigby, Lady Elizabeth Eastlake.