G. Agié

Born: Jacques-Gabriel Agié
Other: Gabriel Agié
Other: Jacques Agié

Born: 1871, 21 August - France, Cahors
Died: 1932, 17 December
Gender: Male
Active: France
 
Photographer of couture in the first decades of the 20th century with a studio at 50, rue St. Lazare, Paris, France.
 

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Jacques Gabriel François Agié was born on August 21, 1871 in Cahors, a city located in the southwest of France. In 1908, 16 years after his arrival in Paris,
 
Gabriel became the owner of a photographic studio at 50 rue Saint Lazare in Paris.
 
Until 1914 Gabriel Agié worked for different press publications.
 
He specialized in fashion photography. In 1910, he is the photographer of the book Les Créateurs de la Mode written by the journalist Roger Milès.
 
He collaborated with several fashion magazines, two of which are regularly published: Fémina and Les Modes. All of these reports are pictures of elegant women as models. In particular, he made several photographic reports of the dressmaker Madame Paquin.
 
He also worked for over ten years with the newspaper L'Illustration. Gabriel Agié photographed for L'Illustration the most beautiful dresses and made reports on the beautiful villa of the French Riviera using the autochrome technique. In 1914, Gabriel Agié must have already acquired a certain status since he produced a photographic report for the same newspaper on the private vacation of the President of the Republic at the time, Raymond Poincaré.
 
Gabriel Agié was mobilized on August 1, 1914. His status allowed him to be in the rear services, but he asked to join the photographic services of the army: the SPCA (photographic and cinematographic services of the army). From April 1916 to November 1917, he was a war operator. The team was composed of 27 members, all of whom were professional photographers between the ages of 21 and 47. Jacques Agié and Charles Winckelsen were the oldest of the group. Agié was also the most highly ranked member, holding the title of sergeant. The totality of his reports consists of 1462 photographs taken mainly in France and Flanders.
 
At the end of the war, Gabriel Agié was 47 years old, and this experience was deeply traumatic, as it was for many of his contemporaries. Thereafter we find very few of his photographs in the press, except for a few reports for the newspaper L'Illustration. It is likely that he abandoned photography to turn to film reporting.
 
He died on December 17, 1932 at the age of 61.
 
[Marie Pebeyre, pers. Email, 14 June 2021]