Biography provided by the Patrick Montgomery Collection (Archive Farms)
 
François Willème (1830-1905) born in Sedan, France, developed a patented method for 3D modeling in 1859 called sculpture photographique, which used both photographic and mechanical means to produce three dimensional models. Willème presented his invention to the Société française de photographie on 17 May, 1861, but it took him two more years to raise the funds to open an enterprise at 42 Boulevard de l’Étoile near the Arc de Triomphe. This specially-built studio had a circular glass cupola forty feet wide and thirty feet high. Glass positives produced by twenty four cameras hidden in its outer wall were projected into a pentagraph device used to trace the contours onto clay from which a full length statue or bust of the subject could be made. His customers included the high society of the Second French Empire. Similar studios were opened in London in 1864 and in New York in 1866. Although his photosculptures were shown successfully at the 1867 Exposition Universelle in Paris, the passion for photosculpture soon waned and, although the business continued for several years without him, Willème returned to his hometown of Sedan in 1868, where he operated a portrait studio and made an occasional photo sculpture.