Alfred Saint-Ange Briquet (30 December 1833,

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

– 1926,

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

) was a French pioneer of photography, particularly in Mexico.

Biography

Briquet became a photographer in Paris in 1854. He taught photography at École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr, the prominent French military academy. He closed his studio in Paris in 1865, but it not certain when he started work in Mexico, however in 1876, he did receive a commission to record the construction of the Mexican National Railway (''Ferrocarril Nacional Mexicano'' - FNM) line being built between

Veracruz Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...

and

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...

. He gained the attention of President Porfirio Díaz and secured a number of commissions. He also published a series of photography books: ''Vistas Mexicanas'', ''Tipos Mexicanos'' and ''Antiquedades Mexicanos''. Following the Mexican Revolution of 1910 he no longer received any government contracts. His photos appeared in several books, and albums among them we can mention "Mexico artístico y pintoresco" edited by Julio Michaud and "Mexico, Its Social Evolution" coordinated by the historian

Justo Sierra Justo Sierra Méndez (January 26, 1848 – September 13, 1912), was a Mexican prominent liberal writer, historian, journalist, poet and political figure during the Porfiriato, in the second half of the nineteenth century and early twentieth ...

Gallery

File:Shoeing the Mules (Mexican Village Scene).jpg, Shoeing the Mules (Mexican Village Scene) File:Castillo de Chapultepec 1880-1900.tif, Chapultepec Castle between 1880 and 1900 File:Catedral Mexico 1880-1900.tif, Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral between 1880 and 1900 File:Palacio Veracruz 1880-1900.tif, Municipal Palace of Veracruz between 1880 and 1900 File:Plaza de Santo Domingo 1880-1900.tif, Santo Domingo Square, Mexico City in 1900 File:Palacio Nacional 1880-1900.tif, National Palace, Mexico City in 1900

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Briquet, Abel 1833 births 1929 deaths Photographers from Paris Porfiriato French emigrants to Mexico Photography in Mexico