| | | Troisième Exposition d'Art Photographique - 1896
(The Photo-Club de Paris)
The third international photographic art exposition hosted by the Photo-Club de Paris was held at the Galerie Des Champs Elysées at 72 Avenue des Champs Elysées in Paris between May 12th and 31st, 1896. The Photo-Club de Paris was created by members who seceded from the Société de Francaise de Photographie and it included influential photographers including Robert Demachy and Constant Puyo.
This was also the third year the Photo-Club de Paris issued a commemorative portfolio for the exposition. This portfolio broke with the tradition of the first two years of the exposition portfolios being bound volumes with printed tissue guards. Instead, the vellum plate large-format photogravures were printed in the ateliers Charles Wittmann (470 deluxe copies printed on paper manufactured by Blanchet and Kléber of Rives, France) blind-stamp numbered which corresponded to a list of plates (Table des Planches) and inserted loosely into an olive cloth portfolio with silk ties. The presence of several loose tissue guards (unprinted) scattered among the plates is also evident in this copy: #128.
This portfolio, along with the successive Photo Club de Paris Exposition d‘Art Photographique portfolios in Photoseed for the years 1894, 1895, and 1897, were the personal copies of Photo-Club de Paris co-founder Constant Puyo.
A three-page "Liste des Exposants" included in the letterpress at the beginning of the portfolio lists a total of 223 distinct photographers who entered their work in this third exposition. The breakdown of the number of photographers from each country was:
116 - from France
46 - from England / Scotland
21 - from Belgium
14 - from Austria
11 - from America
Other countries represented include Germany, Sweden, Spain, Russia, and Ireland - represented by a Mr. Alfred Werner from Dublin.
This portfolio contains 42 individual large format photogravures and one lithographic plate-depicting an Art-Nouveau style drawing by the French artist Edme Couty of a woman holding out a flower. Background on individual photographs has been included where appropriate. In addition to containing several important and ground-breaking examples in the history of photography, the portfolio also brings new discoveries of material worthy of further photographic scholarship.
Photoseed is honored and pleased to let people around the world experience the beauty of this important 1896 exposition portfolio by means of the Internet.
David Spencer-
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