NMeM collection discovers a new Demachy

[Michael Pritchard]

The NMeM blog reports that a PhD student has discovered a new Demachy print in the museum's collections. Student, Julien Faure-Conorton from Paris, found the print Ploërmel, Brittany hidden beneath another print in the collection, La Cueillette, which is part of the Royal Photographic Society material now housed in Bradford. In the words of the blog posting: The full story is this: Julien has been jetting over from France since February to have a ferret around our collection of photographs by Demachy. Demacy was a Frenchman whose early pictorial photography made him one of the world's most famous photographers by the early 20th century. He had a record five exhibitions dedicated to him at The Photographic Society in London -- but mysteriously hung up his camera for good in 1914, never to so much as photograph his grandchildren again. He was also one of the very first people in France to have a car. We have all the prints that Demachy originally donated to the Royal Photographic Society, but it was one in particular -- RPS3647, La Cueillette ("Gathering") -- that led to Julien's big moment. Looking at the picture, Julien noticed that the corner of the print was peeling at the corner, detatching slightly from its cardboard backing. And there was something underneath. That something turned out to be an entirely different Demachy print -- entitled Ploërmel, Brittany. It seems that Demachy was either unhappy with this hidden print, or was just short on backing boards and had to reuse it for La Cueillette. So Julien's eagle eye uncovered an important early photograph we (and the Royal Photographic Society) didn't even know we had. Check out the full posting and more pictures at the National Media Museum blog.