The most important French photographer of 19th century
Professor: Marryjo Marks
Course: History of Photography
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Date: 05/10/2013
Gustave Le Gray is one of the most important French photographer. He was not only a mentor of many well know photographers teacher but also was an innovator of combining negatives to capture the magnificent of both sea and sky simultaneously. “Yet, in his life he was reckon as an artist more than a businessman” says from one of the Le Gray’s student Nadar who also was a well know and influential photographer at the time.
Like most of the photographer at the time, Le Gray too started out as a painter then fell in love with photography. As a former painter, the ability to see things in an artistic perspective and he has had create a way to present sea and sky simultaneously by combining two negative films together, by knowing the use of horizontal line between sea and sky. As we know the limitation of film, even now with film we still cannot present sea and sky in a black and white, the only to do is the Le Gray’s way. This innovation got him going in the photography society at the time. Soon later he started his own studio for portrait. Sadly it was never easy for Le Gray. He has had spent too much money on the artistic production, even he was quite famous in the world of portrait. His studio still in a huge debt. Soon after the carte-de-visite a small, mass produced portrait that were far cheaper than Le Gray’s grand production. Again, Nadar writes: “Le Gray could not resign himself to turn his studio into a factory; he gave up.” At age of 40, Le Gray closed his studio.
During the time government were paying to photographers who can provides documentary photographic of the new cityscape. That's the beginning of the Paris series. The Photo that I will talk about today is one of the Paris series, the Mollien Pavilion, the Louvre. However cityscape was something not what