Photography: LOUIS DODIER AS A PRISONER, 1847

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LOUIS ADOLPHE HUMBERT DE MOLARD

Genre: Portrait

Date: 1847

Location: Paris, France

Format: Daguerréotype

“Baron Louis Adolphe Humbert de Molard (1800-74) was typical of the wealthy amateurs who could afford to explore the new medium of photography.

He began with daguerreotypes in 1843, and in the mid-1850s he became one of the first French photographers to use calotype. He was keen experimenter and innovator in the chemical process required by the various techniques, and in 1854 he was a cofounder of the Société Françoise de Photographie. He specialized in carefully composed and staged genre scenes, influenced by the pictorial tradition and determined in part by the long exposure times necessary for the early photographic technologies. He frequently evoked peasant and rural life, using his friends, family and servants as models. This striking image is one of his steward, Louis Dodier. De Molard made several versions of this image, exploring how different poses and expressions changed the subject.” (PL)

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