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Paris (1870–1871), very fi rst event to be photographed
in France—photographs on the War of Crimée and the
Secession War had already been produced respectively
by Fenton, Brady and Gardner—that Braquehais’ name
is known today. Publicly rediscovered at the time of the
Centenaire (1971), his singular pictures were put into
light again by Musée d’Orsay and Musée de Saint-Denis
exhibitions in winter 2000.
In spite of the many technical restraints (equipment
diffi cult to move, slowness of the exposure time...)
and of the censoring against “all images propicious to
disturb the law and order,” Braquehais “escaped” from
his studio and made about 150 negatives (whose only
109 were registered) of the event. In a context in which
the great photographers of the period were almost
absent and the commercial images by the studios Hyp-
polite Collard, Alphonse Liébert, Pierre Ambroise de
Richebourg or Jules Andrieu Disdéri focused on ruins
and fi res, Braquehais also chose to photograph people.
Indeed, even if these pictures are marginal (about 30)
compared to his whole work on the subject (quite similar
to the common production), his bystanders portraits and
negatives of Fédérés with their families posing in front
of the barricades, gave La Commune a human face and
some “public celebrations” ways where all the genera-
tions and social classes were represented. Therefore,
Braquehais is considered as one of the fi rst reporter, the
precursor of photojournalism in France. Naturally, the
affi nities he felt for the communards cause as well as
the authorizations he could obtain to photograph some
scenes thanks to his connivances can’t be ignored and
give rise to interrogation. Although no document or
evidence can prove that he was put in charge of some
mission by La Commune, Braquehais’ work could be re-
lated to an arranged and methodical account of the event
in favour of the communards... Anyhow, the Versailles
troops at the Tuileries and in the Minister of Justice
interior yard, the Fédérés at Porte Maillot, the cannons
in Montmartre, the Maison Thiers destruction and the
Colonne Vendôme demolition on the same-named place
offer another point of view and remain among the most
signifi cant pictures of the event.
Before disappearing from the Bottin in 1874, Braque-
hais signed an advertising order for a clocks-maker in
1873— because of a lack of work ?—which were doing
very few photographers in the 19th century. He went
bankrupt this same year and was condemned for abuse
of confi dence. Locked away in Mazas prison during
13 months, he died at La Celle-Saint-Cloud without
known heir(ess) on February 1875, a few days after
his release.
Like the erotic photographs of this period, his artis-
tic nudes are sold as postcards and his pictures of La
Commune illustrate the textbooks relating this histori-
cal event often anonymously... His works can be seen
at the Bibliothèque Nationale (Paris, Département des
estampes et de la photographie), Musée Carnavalet
(Paris), Musée de Saint-Denis, Bibliothèque Historique
de la Ville de Paris, Budapest Museum, Agfa-Photo
Historama (Cologne), Printenkabinett (Leiden), and
in several collections such as Mack’s (New York) or
Nazarieff’s (Geveva).
Frédérique TaubenhausBiography
Bruno Braquehais was Born in Dieppe in 1823. Previ-
ously lithographer in Caen, he joined Alexis Gouin’s
parisian fi rm towards 1851 and made portraits, recon-
stitutions, colored daguerreotypes and stereoscopic
images on plates. In 1854, settled in his own studio, he
proposed artistic female nudes collected on the title :
Daguerrian Museum. He married Gouin’s daughter,
Laure, who coloured his images and with whom he
worked since 1852. His photographs draw attention in
several exhibitions among which the Paris Exhibition
where he get an award in 1867. During La Commune
de Paris in 1870–71, whereas his colleagues focused
on ruins after the fi ghts, Braquehais participated to the
birth of photojournalism making a real report of the
event with the demolition of the Colonne Vendôme and
the portraits of Fédérés and bystanders. Condemned in
1873 for abuse of confi dence, Braquehais was locked
away during 13 months and died in 1875 at La Celle-
Saint-Cloud, few days after his release.See Also: Daguerreotype; Gouin, Alexis; and London
Stereoscopic Company.Further Reading
Delpire, Robert, Histoire de voir: de l’invention à l’art pho-
tographique (1839–1880), “Attribué à B. Braquehais, (actif
entre 1850 et 1874),” 128, Nathan, coll. Photo poche.
Gautrand, Jean-Claude, 1870–1871, Les photographes de la
Commune, Photo-ciné-revue, Paris, 1972.
Mirzoeff, Nicolas, Deafness, sign and visual culture in Modern
France, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995.
Nazarieff, Serge, Early erotic photography, Taschen, Cologne,
2002.
Bajac, Quentin, Luxenberg, Alisa, Sotteau, Stéphane, et al., La
commune photographiée, Ed. de la Réunion des Musées Na-
tionaux, Paris, 2000 (Exhibition catalogue, Musée d’Orsay,
Paris).
Regards sur la photographie en France au XIXème siècle: 180
chefs-d’œuvres du Département des Estampes et de la Photog-
raphie de la Bibliothèque Nationale, Berger-Levrault, Paris,
1980 (Exhibition catalogue, Petit Palais, Paris).
Le Bulletin de la SFP: 1864, 144.
La Lumière: 1854.
Le Moniteur de la Photographie: 1863, 1864.
“Paris en mai 1871.” “Premier événement à être photographié
sans être montré: la Commune en trompe-l’œil,” L’Humanité,
March, 21, 2000.