“Photography credited as Science and Fine Arts”

The exhibition “Photography primitives, the calotype in France 1843-1860”, chronicled in last Tuesday’s October 26th issue of “La Lettre de la Photographie”, might have suggested that photography’s first decade was both rich and serene. In his speech at the Fine Arts Academy on Wednesday, November 3rd, exhibition co-curator Paul-Louis Roubert painted an entirely different portrait and exploded a few myths. History describes photography’s invention as having taken place during Arago’s famous speech before the Science Academy on August 19, 1839. It was little known however that the Fine Arts Academy, thought excluded from negotiations, was present at this speech. They were requested there by the Interior Minister of the time. The fight over procedure began at this moment, perhaps maybe even a bit earlier, and continued on in the days, months and years to follow. Talbot and Bayard (en noyé?) against Daguerre. Free against paid. Precision versus the halo. The reproducible against the unique and in some way, the Science Academy against the Fine Arts Academy, or the contrary. These were beginnings reminiscent of a true police mystery, lacking only a director. There is a brief approach to the story in P-L. Roubert’s “The picture without quality. The Fine Arts and the critic under photographic scrutiny, 1839-1859”, published in 2006 by Editions du Patrimoine.
Paul-Louis Roubert is a Doctor in Art History (University of Paris I, Panthéon Sorbonne) and Professor at the University of Paris VIII. He is co-curator of the exhibition “Photography Primitives, the calotype in France 1843-1860” and co-author in 2003 of the catalogues “Explosions in History” and “The French Daguerreotype, a Photographic Object”. He is also Treasurer of the French Photography Society founded in 1854.

Bernard Perrine