Louis Auguste Bisson
1841-1848
[Profile of a Woman with Necrosis of the Nose]

Daguerreotype
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Funds from various donors, 2016, Accession Number: 2016.459
 
Curatorial description (Accessed: 2 November 2017)
In the 1840s and '50s, Louis-Auguste Bisson and his brother, Auguste-Rosalie, were among the most well-known photographers in Paris. Initially specializing in portraiture, the "Bisson Frères" became equally famous for their architectural photographs and for reproductions of artwork. Louis-Auguste, who was older, first worked at his father's studio in the rue St. Germain-l'Auxerrois, and made a name for himself in the 1840s with anthropological and ethnographic commissions. Most notably, he photographed the collection of skulls and plaster busts belonging to the phrenologist, Pierre Marie Alexandre Dumoutier. His foray into medical photography was likely undertaken around the same time, although extant examples are scarce. The mention "Epreuve Redressé," or "corrected proof," indicates that the depicted woman appears to the viewer as she would in reality, rather than with the mirror reversal characteristic of most daguerreotypes. This distinction indicates that the daguerreotype was likely used for instructional purposes.
 
LL/78385