Morceaux choisis, curiosités photographiques de l'Institut de France

On the occasion of the Bicentennial of Photography, this exhibition proposes to retrace the story of a discovery that has transformed the arts, sciences and perception of the modern world. From the photographic collections, archives and heritage collections conserved by the Institut de France, the exhibition conceived as a cabinet of curiosities aims to highlight the multiple dimensions of emerging photography: artistic innovation, scientific discovery and technological advances.

The collections of the Institut de France had already been the subject of a major exploration during the exhibition Éclats d’histoire en 2004, revealing the scale and richness of these collections. This new exhibition offers a renewed look at these collections by favouring rarely exhibited works, unknown albums and documentary ensembles that testify to the diversity of uses of photography in the nineteenth century. Beyond a strictly historical approach to the medium, she intends to reproduce the intellectual, scientific and political context in which photography developed.

The tour opens with the great discoveries that accompanied the invention of photography. The research of William Henry Fox Talbot around the calotype introduces the fundamental principle of the reproducible negative, opening the way to the diffusion of the photographic image. The work of Hippolyte Fizeau contributes to process improvement and chemical image stabilization. With Louis Désiré Blanquart-Évrard, photography enters the era of publishing and the multiplication of prints thanks to the development of photographic paper. Finally, the experiments of Louis Ducos du Hauron on color photography announce the technical and aesthetic mutations of modern photography.

The exhibition also highlights the decisive role played by the academies in the official recognition of this invention. In 1839, before the Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Fine Arts, François Arago publicly proclaims the birth of photography by presenting the daguerreotype of Louis Daguerre. This event marks a major turning point: photography immediately appears as an unprecedented scientific tool as well as a new artistic language capable of transforming the representation of reality.

Very quickly, photography finds applications in many scientific fields. In the field of medicine, it becomes an instrument of observation and analysis of the human body. The micrographs of Eugène Thouroude and the work on radiography of Albert Londe illustrate how the photographic image renews medical practices and the study of medicine.

Astronomy is also a privileged area for experimentation. The works of Lewis Morris Rutherfurd testify to the progress made in the photography of the stars and the importance of the medium in the scientific observation of the sky.

In the field of archaeology, photography becomes an essential tool for documentation and conservation. The mission of Emmanuel de Rougé photographed by Aymard de Banvillle as well as the work of Émile Brugsch in Egypt show how the image accompanies the great archaeological discoveries of the nineteenth century and participates in the dissemination of knowledge, they also testify to the technical difficulties to use photographic equipment in unsuitable climatic conditions and which push photographers to show ingenuity.

Photography also plays a major role in the field of geography. The Ordnance Survey in Sinai, conducted as part of British mapping missions, reveals the scientific and strategic use of the medium. Photographs of the construction of the Panama Canal testify to the extent of the technical and human transformations of the industrial era. The travels of Désiré Charnay in Amérique du Sud illustrate the role of photography in the discovery of distant territories and pre-Columbian civilizations.

The exhibition also addresses the political and military uses of photography through the images of Commune de Paris d’ Alphonse Liébert, which show how photography becomes a tool of memory, testimony and sometimes propaganda in a society traversed by historical upheavals.

The theme of travel occupies an important place in the journey. The albums from the Schlumberger fonds reveal the development of a visual culture of displacement, exploration and discovery of the world. Through landscapes, monuments and scenes of life, these photographic ensembles testify to the emergence of a new look at the territories and societies observed.

Through the different works presented, mission albums, travel, medical textbooks, scientific journals,... the exhibition reveals how photography has established itself in the nineteenth century as a universal language at the crossroads of art, science, industry and history.

Celebrating two centuries of photography, this exhibition invites us to rediscover the extraordinary intellectual, scientific and human adventure that gave birth to the modern image.