South Kensington Museum photo society expo 1858

The Société française de photographie (SFP) is an association, founded on 15 November 1854, devoted to the

history of photography The history of photography began with the discovery of two critical principles: The first is camera obscura image projection; the second is the discovery that some substances are visibly altered by exposure to light. There are no artifacts or de ...

. It has a large collection of photographs and old cameras. Among the founding members were Olympe Aguado, Hippolyte Bayard,

Alexandre Edmond Becquerel Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel (; 24 March 1820 – 11 May 1891) was a French physicist who studied the solar spectrum, magnetism Magnetism is the class of physical attributes that occur through a magnetic field, which allows objects to attrac ...

, Eugène Durieu, Edmond Fierlants, Jean-Baptiste Louis Gros, Gustave Le Gray and

Henri Victor Regnault Henri Victor Regnault (21 July 1810 – 19 January 1878) was a French chemist and physicist best known for his careful measurements of the thermal properties of gases. He was an early thermodynamicist and was mentor to William Thomson in ...

. Henri Victor Regnault was the first president. Louise Leghait was the first woman member.

History

The Société française de photographie, founded on 15 November 1854, was based on the short-lived Société héliographique (1851) but differed in that it was less elitist and more forward-looking. Some accounts mistakenly link the two organizations more closely, referring simply to a change in the name with a view to giving the SFP the status of the world's oldest photography organization. A careful analysis of the Société héliographique describes in detail how the initial enthusiasm for the organization quickly disappeared resulting in the discontinuation of its activities. The SFP was thus established without any formal connection to the Société héliographique. The objectives of the SFP were therefore far more commercially oriented and more concerned with future developments, like the

Académie des sciences The French Academy of Sciences (, ) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...

. Its members — ambitious amateurs, artists, businessmen and scientists — had regular meetings at an established venue, with a written agenda. The objectives were published in a programme and there were regular bulletins. For the remainder of the 19th century, the association was exclusively concerned with improvements to photography. There were regular exhibitions of the members' images, as well as conferences and presentations addressing new techniques, their artistic potential and the latest innovations. The SFP considered itself both an academy of photography and a library of archives. The photographs exhibited were properly archived, together with many comments from the members. From the beginning of the 20th century, the SFP set itself the task of safeguarding historic works. Today it acts as a research centre on the history and development of photography. Since 1997, it has published the twice-yearly journal ''Études photographiques'' with articles on prominent photographers and on the history of photography. The association has a valuable historic collection consisting of some 10,000 images and 50,000 negatives (including 5,000 autochromes. There is also a specialist library with 8,000 books and over 650 journals. The first president of the SFP was

. Its current president is Paul-Louis Roubert, an art historian specializing in photography who has actively contributed to the association in recent years.André Gunthert, "Paul-Louis Roubert élu maître de conférences à Paris 8"
, Actualités de la Recherche en histoire visuelle. Retrieved 4 March 2011.

List of presidents

The list of presidents and presidents of honour, published by the association is as follows:

Presidents

* Eugène Durieu (1855) *

Antoine Jérôme Balard Antoine Jérôme Balard (; 30 September 1802 – 30 April 1876) was a French chemist and one of the discoverers of bromine. Career Born at Montpellier, France, on 30 September 1802, he started as an apothecary ''Apothecary'' () is an Ea ...

(1858) * Eugène Péligot (1868) * Alphonse Davanne (1876) *

Hippolyte Sebert In Greek mythology, Hippolyta, or Hippolyte (; ''Hippolytē''), was a daughter of Ares and Otrera,Hyginus, ''Fabulae'', 30 queen of the Amazons, and a sister of Antiope and Melanippe. She wore her father Ares' ''zoster'', the Greek word fou ...

(1901) *

Léon Gaumont Léon Ernest Gaumont (; 10 May 1864 – 10 August 1946) was a French inventor, engineer, and industrialist who was a pioneer of the motion picture industry. He founded the world's oldest operating film studio, Gaumont (company), Gaumont, and wor ...

(1930) * Léopold Lobel (1933) * Edouard Belin (1937) * Georges Moreau (1953) * Marcel Abribat (1955) * Robert Auvillain (1957) * Fernand Obaton (1969) *

Robert Mauge The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, praise, reno ...

(1971) *

Jean Prissette Jean may refer to: People * Jean (female given name) * Jean (male given name) * Jean (surname) Fictional characters * Jean Grey, a Marvel Comics character * Jean Valjean, fictional character in novel ''Les Misérables'' and its adaptations * Jea ...

(1975) *

Alain Jeanne-Michaud Alain may refer to: People * Alain (given name), common given name, including list of persons and fictional characters with the name * Alain (surname) * "Alain", a pseudonym for cartoonist Daniel Brustlein * Alain, a standard author abbreviation u ...

(1993) *

Michel Poivert Michel Poivert (born 1965) is a professor of the history of contemporary art and photography at the Sorbonne. He has taken a special interest in pictorialism, the subject of his doctorate thesis. From 1995 to 2010, he was president of Société f ...

(1995) * Paul-Louis Roubert (2010)"L'Association"
, ''Société française de photographie''. Retrieved 3 March 2011.

Presidents of honour

(1855) *

Jules Janssen Pierre Jules César Janssen (22 February 1824 – 23 December 1907), usually known as Jules Janssen, was a French astronomer who, along with English scientist Joseph Norman Lockyer, is credited with discovering the gaseous nature of the solar ...

(1891) *

Étienne-Jules Marey Étienne-Jules Marey (; 5 March 1830, Beaune, Côte-d'Or – 15 May 1904, Paris) was a French scientist, physiologist and chronophotographer. His work was significant in the development of cardiology, physical instrumentation, aviation, cinema ...

(1894) *

Gabriel Lippmann Gabriel Lippmann ( ; 16 August 1845 – 12 July 1921) was a French physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1908 "for his method of reproducing colours photographically based on the phenomenon of interference". Early life and educa ...

(1897) * Jules Janssen (1900) *

Aimé Laussedat Aimé Laussedat (April 19, 1819 – March 19, 1907) was a French scientist, more specifically, an observational astronomer, geodesist, surveyor, photogrammetrist, and cartographer. Biography Laussedat was born in Moulins on April 19, 1819. H ...

(1903) *

Jules Violle Jules Louis Gabriel Violle (16 November 1841 – 12 September 1923) was a French physicist and inventor. He is notable for having determined the solar constant at Mont Blanc in 1875, and, in 1881, for proposing a standard for luminous inte ...

(1906) *

Jules Carpentier Jules Carpentier (30 August 1851 – 30 June 1921) was a French engineer and inventor. Jules Carpentier was a student at the French École polytechnique. He bought the Ruhmkorff workshops in Paris when Heinrich Daniel Ruhmkorff died and ...

(1909) * Henri Deslandres (1912) * Prince Roland Bonaparte (1920) *

Louis Lumière Louis Jean Lumière (; 5 October 1864 – 6 June 1948) was a French engineer and industrialist who played a key role in the development of photography and cinema. Early life and education Lumière was one of four children of Claude-Antoine ...

(1923) *

(1926) * Paul Heilbronner (1929) * Georges Perrier (1932) * Charles Fabry (1935) * Armand de Gramont (1938) * Fernand Baldet (1947) * Georges Poivilliers (1949) * Edouard Belin (1952) * Georges Poivilliers (1956) * Marcel Abribat (1958) * Albert Arnulf (1965) * Jean-Jacques Trillat (1971–1987)

Founding members

Among the SFP's founding members were: * Olympe Aguado * Félix Avril * Hippolyte Bayard *

Edmond Becquerel Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel (; 24 March 1820 – 11 May 1891) was a French physicist who studied the solar spectrum, magnetism, electricity, and optics. In 1839, he discovered the photovoltaic effect, the operating principle of the solar cell, w ...

* Louis-Auguste Bisson * Auguste-Rosalie Bisson * Louis Désiré Blanquart-Evrard * Farnham Maxwell-Lyte * Fortuné Joseph Petiot-Groffier * Julien Vallou de Villeneuve

References

''This article draws heavily on the French Wikipedia article with the same title.''

Bibliography

* Alain Jeanne-Michaud, "La Société Française de Photographie", in '' France Photographie'' , No. 176, April 2002 * Michel Poivert, André Gunthert, Carole Troufléau, "L'Utopie photographique. Regard sur la collection de la Société française de photographie", , exhibition catalogue, ''le Point du jour'', 2004

External links

SFP website

SFP blog

Revue ''Études photographiques''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Societe francaise de photographie Photography museums and galleries in France Photo archives in France Photography organizations established in the 19th century Photographic technology museums Learned societies of France Organizations established in 1854 1854 establishments in France 19th-century French photographers