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tography. Within the Station physiologique he opened
in Auteuil he designed not only a photographic process
(based fi rst on glass negatives then on celluloid fi lms)
but also a complex and ingenious laboratory where every
attempt was made to avoid any distortion of observation.
His works raised French artists’ interest and although a
doctor himself, his aim being scientifi c, he nevertheless
always had been keen on artistic representations. A soon
as 1873 he wrote La Machine animale. In 1878 he gave a
lecture where he pointed out how unrealistic representa-
tion of horses pace by painters and sculptors had been
until then. He published in 1893 the Album de physi-
ologie artistique, n°1, des mouvements de l’homme. If
Edgar Degas chose to keep a traditional representation
of movement in his paintings, his sculptures of dancers
and horses showed an interest for movement analysis
close to Marey’s experiment. In 1882 Albert Londe
created the photographic department within the Pari-
sian hospital of La Salpêtrière. From 1888 his images
reproducing Charcot’s work on hysteria were published
in Nouvelle iconographie de la Salpêtrière. This medical
photography marked another use for photography and
union between science and photography.
Instantaneous images did not go move beyond to
show a moving world. Although they depicted previ-
ously unseen stationary images, they failed to reproduce
movement. Snapshots showed human beings, vessels,
trains and waves as if they were stopped. As André Gun-
thert wrote: “Instantaneous fi xed an index of surprise
and accident.” Commercialization of the Kodak Pocket
camera from 1888 enlarged such an index. Its low price
and its easy handiness gave many people the chance of
buying and using it. Millions of every day life incidents
and surprises had been reproduced: kids’ games, jumps,
falls, dives, and even hide-and-seek parties. Photography
had entered thousands of people’s livese.
Maurice Guibert, a close friend to Henri de Toulouse-
Lautrec, joined an association of amateur photographers,
La Société des excursionnistes photographes. His
photographs showed friendly groups of men laughing,
joking and teasing. Pierre Bonnard and Edouard Vuil-
lard both used the Kodak Pocket as well. Bonnard’s
photographs show the happy and noisy games of his
sister’s kids in the family’s house. All hi simages were
not of simple daily events, and around 1900, he took
several nude photographs of Marthe, who became his
wife some years later. Bonnard’s photographs often
raised emotions and relayed the intimacy between the
photographer and his model, which is enhanced by his
painter’s sense of composition and light. He also took
more photographs of Marthe in his garden at Montval.
Bonnard kept her movements beautiful and poses free-
dom. She walked from sunlight to shadow, at ease within
nature as a nymph.
Edouard Vuillard photographs are closely related to
both his work and his life as well. The painter called
himself “a day-to-day life explorer.” For most of his life,
he painted family and friends often with an outstanding
acuteness of judgment. His Nabis paintings made in the
1890s are deeply infl uenced by his stage sets and by his
familiarity to Ibsen or Maeterlinck plays. His choice for
unbalanced compositions, his taste for decorative panels
and the way he emphasizes how uneasy communication
is between people underlay his photographs as well. He
bought his camera in 1897 and kept photographing until
the 1930s. He often mentioned photography in his diary.
More than just images of games and incidents, his pho-
tographs show long lasting attitudes and links between
people. His photographic work echoes his painting.
Edgar Degas’ photographs can not be related to
snapshot aesthetics. It has often been written that as
a photographer he composed still, almost severe yet
strongly enlightened images. His photographic practice
only lasted some months around 1895 as he was already
quite old with a long career behind him. The images,
however all show his close friends—Stéphane Mal-
larmé, Auguste Renoir, the Rouart and Lerolle families.
Degas obliged his models to long poses. His prints were
under his control enlarged by Guillaume Tasset who
designed contrasting images.
Aside from painter’s photography, pictorialism de-
veloped in France at the end of the century. Pictorialism
was born among amateur circles. The Parisian Photo
Club gathered from 1890 consisting of Constant Puyo,
Robert Demachy, Hachette, de Singly. In 1894 they or-
ganized rue des Mathurins in Paris, the fi rst Exposition
d’art photographique. They claimed that photography
should be recognized as an art; however they still used
techniques mainly taken from painting and drawing.
Pictoralists chose to show a world far away from modern
life’s agitation and as such they could be compared to
symbolist artists. In 1899 Robert de la Sizeranne pub-
lished his manifesto La Photographie est-elle un art?
(“Is Photography an Art?”). In 1903 Puyo launched La
Revue de photographie where the photographs shown
in the Photo Club exhibitions were published. Photo
Club members kept close relationships with pictorial-
ist photographers abroad and participated in foreign
exhibitions and publications.
Eugène Atget has been, seen since Berenice Abbott
discovered the man and his photographs in the 1920s,
the French forerunner of “pure photography.” Surreal-
ists, Man Ray at fi rst, is also highly praised his images.
Atget was born in Libourne and came to Paris in 1878.
After having tried to work in theaters as a painter he
settled as professional photographer in 1890. On his
door was written: Documents pour artistes. Some
years later he started his systematic survey of Parisian
streets and buildings. He sold his photographs to pub-
lic institutions like the Bibliothèque nationale, Musée