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was his documentation of the subterranean caverns at
Han-sur-Lesse, a two week campaign in November
1876, resulting in thirty views obtained with a system
of twenty-two portable magnesium lamps. His fi nal in-
novation was the publication of postcards in collotype
in 1895 for Namur-Attractions, a tourist promotion
agency.
Armand Dandoy died on 14 July 1898. The portrait
studio continued operating under his widow’s name until
1902, thereafter under the authority of Edmond Rosbach
(born 18 April 1865), Dandoy’s operator since about
- Dandoy’s widow bequeathed him the contents of
the studio, with the exception of negatives from the series
La Province de Namur Monumentale & Pittoresque,
which she left to the Société archéologique de Namur.
There are substantial holdings of Dandoy’s work at
the Archives du Palais du Roi, Brussels, Bibliothèque
royale Albert Ier—Cabinet des estampes, the Biblio-
thèque universitaire Moretus Plantin, Namur and the
Société archéologique, Namur. The glass plate nega-
tives in the latter institution were copy printed in 1995,
and transferred to disquettes accessible to the public
at the Division du Patrimoine, Ministère de la Région
wallonne, Namur.
Steven F. Joseph
Biography
Armand Dandoy, christened Ernest, was born in Goug-
nies, Hainaut province, Belgium, on 11 November
1834, second son of Joseph Dandoy (1801–1850),
manager of a smelting plant, and his wife Jeanne née
Janne (1801–1871). He opened his fi rst photography
studio in partnership with his elder brother Héliodore
(1831–1909) at Rue de Gravière 14, Namur, on 1 July
- A customised portrait studio was constructed at
Rue de la Station 6, renamed Rue Mathieu, and opened
on 10 September 1866. Dandoy operated it continu-
ously until his death. He married Charlotte De Coster
(1831–1912), known as Caroline, on 24 October 1867.
He was secure in his reputation as portrait photographer
of choice to the regional bourgeoisie,
Armand Dandoy’s major achievement is the land-
scape series La Province de Namur Monumentale &
Pittoresque, comprising 110 prints issued between
1869 and 1879. Armand Dandoy died on 14 July
See also: Société française de photographie;
Landscape; Architecture; and Collotype.
Further Reading
Claes, Marie-Christine and Steven F. Joseph, “‘Messieurs les
artistes daguerréotypes’ et les autres: aux origines de la
photographie à Namur (1839–1860)” [Respected Artists of
the Daguerreotype and Others: Early Photography in Namur
(1839–1860)], De la Meuse à l’Ardenne, 22 (1996): 5–28.
Coppens, Jan, Laurent Roosens and Karel Van Deuren, “Door de
enkele werking van het licht”: introductie en integratie van de
fotografi e in België en Nederland [“By the sole action of light”:
Introduction and Integration of Photography in Belgium and
The Netherlands], Antwerp: Gemeentekrediet, 1989.
Dupont, Pierre-Paul,Un demi-siècle de photographie à Namur des
origines à 1900 [A Half Century of Photography in Namur
until 1900], Brussels: Crédit Communal, 1986.
Hiernaux, Luc, “Les couleurs de l’ombre. Paysages et monu-
ments de la province de Namur dans l’œuvre photographique
d’Armand Dandoy (1834–1898)” [The Colours of Shade.
Landscapes and Monuments in Namur Province in the Photo-
graphic Work of Armand Dandoy (1834–1898)], De la Meuse
à l’Ardenne, 23/1 (1996): 1–240
Joseph, Steven F., Tristan Schwilden and Marie-Christine Claes,
Directory of Photographers in Belgium 1839–1905, Antwerp
and Rotterdam: Uitgeverij C. de Vries-Brouwers, 1997.
Vercheval, Georges (ed.), Pour une histoire de la photographie
en Belgique [Contributions to a History of Photography in
Belgium], Charleroi: Musée de la Photographie, 1993.DARKROOM AND DEVELOPING
CHAMBER
In the course of the second half of the nineteenth
century, the darkroom evolved from being a simple
‘darkened room’ for the preparation and development
of photographic materials, to become the photographic
developing and printing room with which analogue
photographers today would be familiar.
In the 1840s, the period in which the daguerreotype
and calotype were in ascendancy, their low sensitivity
to light permitted much of the preparation work to be
carried out in candlelight. By the end of the century,
conditions required for the processing of the high speed
panchromatic materials of the day required the exclu-
sion of all light.
At the height of the daguerreian era, Henry Morley,
Editor of Charles Dickens’ popular periodical House-
hold Words painted an eloquent picture of the work
rooms behind John Jabez Edwin Mayall’s London studio
in an essay for the magazine in March 1853:
The den of the photographer, in which he goes through
those mysterious operations which are not submitted to
the observation of the sitter, is a small room lighted by a
window, and communicating into a dark closet, veiled
with heavy curtains.... There, having carefully excluded
daylight, the operator lifted up the lid of a small bin,
rapidly fi xed the plate, silver side downwards, in a place
made underneath for its reception....
The term ‘dark chamber’ or ‘dark-room’ originated
in the earliest years of the daguerreotype, when it was
assumed that all the stages of sensitisation had to be
performed in the dark. That idea was dismissed by
Antoine Claudet in his 1841 British Patent No. 9193 of
1841, in which he patented the idea of