Contents
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Status: Collect > Document > Analyse > Improve |
Introduction
237.01 War > Paris Commune (1871): Introduction
  
Following the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) the head of the French National Government, Adolph Thiers, had negotiated the terms of peace but the inhabitants of Paris, who had undergone a long siege, did not accept the German victory. A catalyst for widespread unrest was a planned triumphal entry into the city by the German army - the citizens rebelled and the Paris Commune began on 18 March 1871.
There remains a photographic record of the barricades, devastated streets and buildings and the dead communards. Most of the photographs are uninteresting albumen prints but within the collections at Northwestern University Library there are some gems. Photographs also survive of the destruction of the Colonne Vendôme on 16 May 1871 in Place Vendôme.
In the week beginning 21 May 1871 there was brutal street fighting an an estimated 20,000-30,000 communards were killed or executed with many more being arrested. French newspapers, such as Le Monde illustré and L'Illustration, used photographs as the basis for their engravings.
237.02 War > Photomontage during the Paris Commune (1871)
      
During and after the Paris Commune of 1871 Eugène Appert (1814-1891) created photomontage albumen prints to highlight key events in a series entitled Crimes of the Commune (Crimes de la Commune). Each of the printed composites was accompanied with printed details that provided the evidence for what was being supposedly being shown. The prints were used as propaganda by the French National Government, led by Adolph Thiers, to justify the brutal suppression of the commune and the executions that followed.
Themes
237.03 War > Paris Commune (1871): Photographs of wanted and dead communards
 
Following the Paris Commune (1871) photographs of wanted communards were supplied to the Frontier police so they could be captured - this use of photographs to support political objectives where photojournalists are torn between taking images at demonstrations and the knowledge that their images will be used as a tool of oppression.
237.04 War > Paris Commune (1871): Destruction of the Vendome Column
     
237.05 War > Paris Comme Album (1871)
                    
This exhibition contains the title page and all the plates for the:
Album Photographique
des
Ruines de Paris
collection
de tous les monuments et édifices incendiés et détruits
par
La Commune de Paris
Accompagnee de Notices historique de descriptives sur chaque sujet
The album with 20 glued in albumen prints was published in Paris by Librairie rue Visconti, 22 with the price of 28 francs. The author who wrote the notes was Justin Lallier, septembre 1871.
alan@luminous-lint.com |
General reading
Lewinski, Jorge, 1978, The Camera at War, A History of War Photography, (New York: Simon & Schuster) [Δ]
Livingston, Jane, 1985, The Indelible Image, Photographs of War, (New York: Harry Abrams) [Δ]
If you feel this list is missing a significant book or article please let me know - Alan - alan@luminous-lint.com
Resources
Northwestern University - Collection of photographs on the Paris Commune (1871)
http://www.library.northwestern.edu ...
This site contains links to over 1200 digitized photographs and images recorded during the Siege and Commune of Paris.
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Eugène Appert (1830-1891) • Bruno Braquehais (1823-1875) • Hippolyte-Auguste Collard (1812-1897) • François-Joseph Delintraz • André Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri (1819-1889) • Allan Hughan (1834-1883) • Alphonse J. Liébert (check) • Pierre-Ambroise Richebourg (check) | Home > Themes > War > Paris Commune (1871)
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