As a medium born in the 19th century during the height of the Industrial Revolution, photography has served as both witness to and participant in the mechanization of the modern world. The exhibition traces this relationship from the pioneering experimental work of Nicéphore Niépce, who conducted his first empirical photographic experiments between 1816 and 1833, through to today's sophisticated smartphones equipped with advanced sensors and increasingly automated photography capabilities.
From photography's very beginning, the emerging industrial sector became a compelling photographic subject in its own right. The medium proved to be the perfect tool for capturing and sharing technological progress and industrial advancement with wider audiences. Wealthy industrialists and enlightened amateurs of the era used photography to document the buildings and facilities that had made their fortunes, creating lasting visual proof of their success and achievements.
A notable example from the mid-19th century featured in the exhibition is the work of Joseph-Fortuné Petiot-Groffier from Chalon, who immortalized his factory using a view camera and collodion plates before creating his own salted paper prints. This practice demonstrated how early adopters of photography used the medium to document their industrial enterprises.
The exhibition highlights how George Eastman's revolutionary contributions in the late 19th century fundamentally transformed photography from a craft-based practice into an industrial process itself. Eastman's successive inventions of the ready-to-use camera and flexible film marked a crucial turning point in photographic history. These innovations led to significant reductions in material costs and camera sizes, while enabling mass production of both cameras and photosensitive media. These technological revolutions established photography as a central element of society's visual culture and image-making practices.
The photographic medium itself became an industrial object that was naturally put to work serving other types of industries. Industrial photography quickly developed standardized approaches and established recurring motifs that included architectural views showing both interior and exterior spaces of buildings, detailed documentation of machinery, portraits of workers, and careful documentation of manufactured products.
During the interwar period, photographers became fascinated by industry and the broader industrialization of society. As stakeholders in this industrialization process through the proliferation of camera manufacturers, photographers naturally embraced this movement. The exhibition features works by prominent photographers of this era, including René Zuber, Régis Lebrun, André Steiner, Pierre Boucher, Jean Moral, and members of the Soviet Constructivist movement.
Advances in printing technology and layout design during this period encouraged the proliferation of press publications such as VU and Art et Médecine, along with various communication media including posters and brochures. Photographers were increasingly called upon to illustrate, document, and help sell industrial products and concepts. This dynamic contributed to a significant increase in both photographs and printed documents, culminating in François Kollar's ambitious project "La France travaille" (France Works), which was produced between 1931 and 1935.
The publishing house Éditions Paul-Martial began collaborating with manufacturers to develop their communication materials, bringing together professionals from different fields including photographers, graphic designers, and printers. This collaborative approach helped establish new standards for industrial communication.
The period known as the "Trente Glorieuses" (Glorious Thirty Years) completed photography's transformation into the primary vehicle for promoting industrialization and represented the golden age of industrial photography. During this post-war reconstruction period, everything needed to be rebuilt with support from public authorities, and there was a strong emphasis on both doing the work and spreading the word about progress.
Some photographers chose to specialize in this lucrative field. André Papillon, for example, stopped working as a photojournalist to establish a studio dedicated specifically to industrial and advertising photography. Other photographers, such as Jean-Pierre Sudre, used the financial rewards from industrial commissions to finance their personal artistic projects.
The fundamental motifs of industrial photography remained consistent throughout these periods. From architectural documentation to machinery, from worker portraits to product photography, industry continued to fascinate photographers. However, some photographers began to assert their individual artistic vision to distinguish their work, as the standardization of commissions often led to standardized photographic approaches.
In today's globalized world, where free trade has destabilized traditional industrial structures and production lines have been outsourced to other countries, commissions for industrial photography have become increasingly scarce. While advertising photography remains popular and architectural photography is still occasionally commissioned by industrialists, the abundance of work that characterized the interwar period and the Trente Glorieuses is now behind us.
Contemporary photographers are taking a different approach to industrial subjects. Artists such as Mitch Epstein, Stéphane Couturier, Claire Chevrier, Stephen Dock, Valérie Couteron, Bertrand Meunier, François Deladerrière, and Sylvie Bonnot are now addressing deindustrialization on their own initiative. These photographers are questioning the end of an industrial era and reinterpreting the traditional codes of industrial photography in order to examine them more critically.
Through their work, these contemporary artists use the photographic medium to examine the worker's gesture and explore the future of now-obsolete industrial architecture. Their approach represents a shift from commissioned documentation to personal artistic investigation of industrial decline and transformation.
The exhibition is curated by Anne-Céline Callens and Sylvain Besson of the Musée Nicéphore Niépce. The museum is located at 28 quai des Messageries, 71100 Chalon-sur-Saône, and can be reached at 03 85 48 41 98. Additional information about the exhibition and the museum's collections can be found at www.museeniepce.com, www.open-museeniepce.com, and www.archivesniepce.com.
