Félix-Jacques Antoine Moulin (27 March 1802 – 12 December 1875) was a French
photographer
A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who uses a camera to make photographs.
Duties and types of photograp ...
.
Biography
In 1849, Moulin opened a
photographer's studio at 31 bis rue du Faubourg Montmartre and started producing
daguerreotype
Daguerreotype was the first publicly available photography, photographic process, widely used during the 1840s and 1850s. "Daguerreotype" also refers to an image created through this process.
Invented by Louis Daguerre and introduced worldwid ...
s of young girls aged 14 to 16. In 1851, Moulin's work was confiscated, and he was sentenced to one month imprisonment for the "obscene" character of his works, "so obscene that even to pronounce the titles (...) would violate public morality" according to court records.
After his release, Moulin continued his activities more discreetly. He taught photography, sold photographic equipment, and had a backdoor installed to his studio to dodge further legal problems. His works gained esteem from critics.
In 1856, Moulin made a photographic trip to
Algeria
Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...
, with a tonne of equipment, backed and financed by the French government, which allowed it to gain benefit from the structures of
colonialism
Colonialism is the control of another territory, natural resources and people by a foreign group. Colonizers control the political and tribal power of the colonised territory. While frequently an Imperialism, imperialist project, colonialism c ...
. There, he met technical difficulties due to variations in humidity, work in the open, and the quality of water, but managed nonetheless to extensively document the benefit of French colonies in Northern Africa. He came back in 1858 with hundreds of photographs of landscapes, cities, archeologic surveys and portraits of inhabitants, and published 300 of them as ''L'Algérie photographiée'', a three-volume
in folio work. These documents became official brochures of the colonial rule of
Napoléon III
Napoleon III (Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was President of France from 1848 to 1852 and then Emperor of the French from 1852 until his deposition in 1870. He was the first president, second emperor, and last ...
, to whom the work was dedicated.
They toured Europe in several expositions.
Moulin retired in 1862 and died in 1875.
Gallery
File:Nude woman in colored daguerreotype by Félix-Jacques Moulin.jpg, Nude woman in colored daguerreotype by Moulin, circa 1851–1854
File:Les Baigneuses par Félix-Jacques Moulin.jpg, The Bathers, circa 1851–1855
File:Archeology Moulin.jpg, Archeologic survey, photography of ancient Roman inscriptions from Cherchell
Cherchell () is a town on Algeria's Mediterranean coast, west of Algiers. It is the seat of Cherchell District in Tipaza Province. Under the names Iol and Caesarea, it was formerly a Roman colony and the capital of the kingdoms of Numidia ...
, 1856
File:Moulin 16.jpg, Si Hassan Lieutenant Senac Seliman, 1856
References
External links
getty.edu
1802 births
1875 deaths
French photographers
{{France-photographer-stub