La République des amateurs
Amateur photographers from around 1900 in the collections of the Société Française de Photographie
From 18 June to 06 November 2011
Jeu de Paume – Tours
The technological simplifications of photography that witnessed the introduction of gelatine silver-bromide at the turn of the 1880s were a boost to amateur photography. This spread mainly in the wealthier classes and was organised around societies whose members met to discuss and compare their work. It was here that they learnt about the latest techniques and developed their knowledge of the equipment, both being essential to the successful pursuit of what was a time-consuming practice.
These amateur societies organised excursions, photography competitions, projection evenings and specialised publications. The photographs produced by their members reflect the practices of the period (the emphasis on immediacy, night photography, the beginnings of the autochrome process) but also look forward to the culture of photojournalism and tourist photography, as developed on the excursions. Founded by Albert Londe, the Société d’Excursions des Amateurs de Photographie (SEAP) established itself as an exemplary organisation in this field. Most of its members also belonged to the Société Française de Photographie, which at the time was emerging as an essential forum, organising the discussions between these cultivated amateurs with a passion for photographic technique.
This exhibition features a set of over a hundred modern prints made using the original projection plates kept by the Société Française de Photographie, most of which have never been shown before. The selection is complemented by several black-and-white and colour projections (autochrome plates) revealing how these images were originally shown.
> Exhibition organised together with the Jeu de Paume and the city of Tours, in collaboration with the Société Française de Photographie.
Curators: Garance Chabert, curator, art critic, editor of Études Photographiques; Julie Jones, ATER at Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, secretary general of the SFP; Carole Troufléau-Sandrin, curator at the Musée de l’Élysée, Lausanne.
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