Jean-Baptiste (Batty) Fischer (1877–1958) was a
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
dentist and amateur photographer. He is best remembered for his collection of some 10,000 photographs that richly document the development of
Luxembourg City
Luxembourg ( lb, Lëtzebuerg; french: Luxembourg; german: Luxemburg), also known as Luxembourg City ( lb, Stad Lëtzebuerg, link=no or ; french: Ville de Luxembourg, link=no; german: Stadt Luxemburg, link=no or ), is the capital city of the Lu ...
from the end of the 19th century until the 1950s.
Early life and family
Batty Fischer was born on 24 July 1877 in the ''Marché aux Herbes'' opposite the
Grand Ducal palace
The Grand Ducal Palace ( lb, Groussherzogleche Palais, french: Palais grand-ducal, german: Großherzogliches Palais) is a palace in Luxembourg City, in southern Luxembourg. It is the official residence of the grand duke of Luxembourg, and wher ...
where his parents, Josef Fischer and Marguerite Marie Ferron, had a shop dealing in fashionable clothes and furs. Batty was the eldest of three children; his sister Marguerite and brother Fritz were later to take over the family business. After graduating from high school, Fischer studied dentistry at the ''Ecole Dentaire'' in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and 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), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
.
[René Clesse, "Geschichtsschreibung mit der Kamera: Die ersten Photographen unserer Hauptstadt"](_blank)
. ''Onsstad''. . Retrieved 25 November 2010.
Professional career
At the age of 20, Fischer returned to Luxembourg and started a practice on the ''Grand-Rue'' which he later moved to a building near the ''Brasserie Pôle Nord'' adjacent to the Pont Adolphe. In 1942, after being deprived of his licence by the occupying
Nazis
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
on the grounds that he was too supportive of the French, he practiced on the corner of ''Boulevard d'Avranches'' and ''Avenue de la Gare''.
Amateur photography
While dentistry was Fischer's profession, his real interest was photography. He could often been seen strolling around the town with his camera, waiting to take photographs of any interesting items which caught his eye. Indeed, always a bachelor, he devoted a great deal of his spare time to his hobby. Considered something of a
dilettante
Dilettante or dilettantes may refer to:
* An amateur, someone with a non-professional interest
* A layperson, the opposite of an expert
* ''Dilettante'' (album), a 2005 album by Ali Project
* ''Dilettantes'' (album), a 2008 album by You Am I
* D ...
, he showed considerable interest in art and music, associating with numerous local painters, writers and journalists. Fischer was also inventive in putting together his own
telephoto lens
A telephoto lens, in photography and cinematography, is a specific type of a long-focus lens in which the physical length of the lens is shorter than the focal length. This is achieved by incorporating a special lens group known as a ''telephoto ...
es. After making all the calculations, he would order the necessary lens elements from a local optician and encase them in varnished home-made
papier-mâché
upright=1.3, Mardi Gras papier-mâché masks, Haiti
upright=1.3, Papier-mâché Catrinas, traditional figures for day of the dead celebrations in Mexico
Papier-mâché (, ; , literally "chewed paper") is a composite material consisting of p ...
tubes, providing equipment of a type which at the time could not be obtained commercially.
While Fischer showed great interest in photographing buildings and items of physical interest in the town of Luxembourg and its surroundings, he was also adept at photographing local men, women and children in their natural surroundings, often at their place of work. His shots often convey an unusual liveliness as he managed to catch his subjects in the course of their normal activities, sometimes amusingly portraying their leisure moments. Unlike other extant photographs of Luxembourg from the same period, those taken by Fischer are rather special in their number and continuity. Every weekend when he was free to walk around the town, Fischer would take the most recent examples of his work to the local authorities and receive a few hundred francs on condition he wrote a short description of the historical context on the back. In this way, Fischer left a full record of how the town evolved over a lengthy period, from the
Belle Époque
The Belle Époque or La Belle Époque (; French for "Beautiful Epoch") is a period of French and European history, usually considered to begin around 1871–1880 and to end with the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Occurring during the era ...
to the post-war years.
Henri Beck, "Batty Fischer (1877–1958): un photographe pas comme les autres"
''Onsstad''. Retrieved 25 November 2010
Batty Fischer died in Luxembourg City on 27 December 1958. A half-used roll of film was found in his camera.
Collection
Some 10,000 photographs taken by Fischer between 1890 and 1958 can be viewed at the Photothèque in Luxembourg City.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fischer, Batty
Luxembourgian photographers
1877 births
1958 deaths
People from Luxembourg City