| Names: | | | Dates: | 1820, 30 August - 1884, 29 July | | Born: | France, Seine-et-Oise, Villiers-le-Bel | | Died: | Egypt, Cairo | | Active: | France / Italy / Egypt | | Gender: | Male |
Early French photographer and developer of new photographic processes. He took photographs of the forests at Fontainebleau, recorded monuments for the ‘Commission des Monuments Historiques‘, took seascapes and military maneuvers (1857), before fleeing his financial troubles and going to live in Egypt.Preparing biographies
Gustave Le Gray had high aesthetic ambitions for photography, creating virtuoso images and in particular dramatic seascapes. Previous photographers had found it difficult to capture skies, because of the different exposures needed to get detail in the sea and the sky. Le Gray solved this by using two different negatives.Le Gray was also one of the first to claim that photographs could be appreciated as works of art in their own right.
This biography is courtesy and copyright of the Victoria & Albert Museum and is included here with permission.
Date last updated: 11 Nov 2011.
SHARED BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION PROJECT
We welcome institutions and scholars willing to test the sharing of biographies for the benefit of the photo-history community. The biography above is a part of this trial.
If you find any errors please email us details so they can be corrected as soon as possible. |
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General reading
Aubenas, Sylvie & Roubert, Paul-Louis (eds.), 2010, Primitifs de la photographie, le calotype en France 1843-1860, (Gallimard BNF) [LL_REF:1268]
Barro, Lisa, and Nora W. Kennedy, 2005, ‘Gustave Le Gray's Salted Paper Prints‘, in Pre-Prints of the 14th Triennial Meeting Amsterdam, ICOM Committee for Conservation, pp.533–540 [LL_REF:1284]
Mondenard, Anne de, 2002, La Mission Héliographique: Cinq photographes parcourent la France en 1851, (Paris: Centre des Monuments Nationaux) [LL_REF:1278]
Néagu, Philippe, et al., 1980, La Mission Héliographique: Photographies de 1851. Exhibition catalogue, (Paris: Inspection Générale des Musées Classés et Contrôlés) [LL_REF:1279]
Rice, Shelley, 1999, Parisian Views, (The MIT Press) isbn-10: 0262681072 isbn-13: 978-0262681070 [LL_REF:1694]
Readings on, or by, individual photographers
Aubenas, Sylvie et al., 2002, Gustave Le Gray, 1820–1884, (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum) [LL_REF:817]
Janis, Eugenia Parry, 1987, The Photography of Gustave Le Gray, (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago and University of Chicago Press) [LL_REF:818]
If you feel this list is missing a significant book or article please let me know - Alan - alan@luminous-lint.com
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Family history
If you are related to this photographer and interested in tracking down your extended family we can place a note here for you to help. It is free and you would be amazed who gets in touch.
alan@luminous-lint.com |
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Exhibitions on this website |
 | Gustave Le Gray: Artist studies - Académies |
|  | Gustave Le Gray: Brig on the Water |
|  | Gustave Le Gray: Business cards |
|  | Gustave Le Gray: Camp de Chalons |
|  | Gustave Le Gray: Different photographs with the same clouds |
|  | Gustave Le Gray: Paintings of the Camp de Chalons |
|  | Gustave Le Gray: Photographs of art |
|  | Gustave Le Gray: Seascapes |
|  | Gustave Le Gray: Trees |
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All photographs by this photographer
Gustave Le Gray
http://expositions.bnf.fr ...
On-line exhibition at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Paris)
| Sea & Sky: Photographs by Gustave Le Gray, 1856-1857
http://www.vam.ac.uk ...
This exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum (London) examines the composite seascapes of Gustave Le Gray.
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The following books are useful starting points to obtain brief biographies but they are not substitutes for the monographs on individual photographers. |
• Auer, Michele & Michel 1985 Encyclopedie Internationale Des Photographes de 1839 a Nos Jours / Photographers Encylopaedia International 1839 to the present (Hermance, Editions Camera Obscura) 2 volumes [A classic reference work for biographical information on photographers.]
• Beaton, Cecil & Buckland, Gail 1975 The Magic Eye: The Genius of Photography from 1839 to the Present Day (Boston and Toronto: Little, Brown & Company) p.49 [Useful short biographies with personal asides and one or more example images.]
• Capa, Cornell (ed.) 1984 The International Center of Photography: Encyclopedia of Photography (New York, Crown Publishers, Inc. - A Pound Press Book) p.297-298
• Lenman, Robin (ed.) 2005 The Oxford Companion to the Photograph (Oxford: Oxford University Press) [Includes a short biography on Gustave Le Gray.]
• Perez, Nissan N. 1988 Focus East: Early Photography in the Near East 1839-1885 (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.) p.190-191 [Short biography on Gustave Le Gray possibly with example plates.]
• Weaver, Mike (ed.) 1989 The Art of Photography 1839-1989 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press) p.459-460 [This exhibition catalogue is for the travelling exhibition that went to Houston, Canberra and London in 1989.]
• Witkin, Lee D. and Barbara London 1979 The Photograph Collector’s Guide (London: Secker and Warburg) p.181-182 [Long out of print but an essential reference work - the good news is that a new edition is in preparation.]
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If there is an analysis of a single photograph or a useful self portrait I will highlight it here. |
| "Since its first discovery, photography has made rapid progress, especially as regards the instruments employed in its practice. It now remains for the artist to raise it to its proper position among the fine arts. (1856)" |
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