Modernism and Modernity - The circle of photographers Gustave Le Gray (1850-1860)

Four years in the works, the preliminary research for this exhibition began during Mondenard’s preparation of the exhibition and book, La Mission héliographique. “During my research, I noticed disturbing similarities (shades of sepia, compositions, subjects) among certain photographs whose authorship and history were in question.” Recent discoveries have substantiated those intuitions. Documents, including the estate of a notary, a student of Le Gray, corroborate the fact that Le Gray had students, and the list of them established by the Bibliothèque Nationale de France for its major Le Gray exhibition in 2002 will have to be lengthened. Joining Le Secq, Nègre, Greene and Salzmann are the names of Bérenger, Deessert, Du Manoir and especially Alphonse Delaunay (1827–1906), all absent from the history of photography. Rediscovered by chance at an estate sale, Delaunay’s body of work contains around 250 prints produced over a period of 25 years. According to the curators, these fifty names form the “Photographers of the Circle of Gustance Le Gray.”