Limited-edition subscription portfolios of large-plate photogravures were issued by the Photo-Club de Paris commemorating their annual photographic salons held between 1894-1897.

The Photo-Club de Paris was created by members who seceded from the Société de Francaise de Photographie.  Contemporary author Janet Buerger writes of the organization:

“The Photo Club de Paris was formed as an idea at the International Congress of Photography in 1889. In 1891 it published its first Bulletin. Its initial salon album, published in 1894, was the first of at least four that set the standards for fine gravure folios in the period.” 1.

Continuing, Buerger states:

“These gravures are valued as original prints, because of their superior quality and because they are often all we have left of the extremely rare images of this period.” 2.

1894 was the first year the club hosted one of the most lavish and international of the artistic photographic salons of the late nineteenth century. Precedents to this had been set by the first 1888 Vienna salon, followed by their salons of 1891 and 1892 and the first London (Linked Ring) salon of 1893. These secessionist clubs broke away from the older established photographic societies inclusive but frequently interested in technical rather than artistic achievement.

“The series constitutes a highpoint of pictorialism in print, the permanent visual record of an influential event that brought together work by most of the international masters in the medium”… 3.

Please visit here to continue with our overview of The Photo-Club de Paris and the first year portfolio.

1. FRANCE: JANET E. BUERGER, THE LAST DECADE: THE EMERGENCE OF ART PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE 1890’S: ROCHESTER: INTERNATIONAL MUSEUM OF PHOTOGRAPHY AT GEORGE EASTMAN HOUSE: 1984: P. 24
2. IBID
3. EXPOSITION D’ART PHOTOGRAPHIQUE: SHELIA J. FOSTER:IMAGINING PARADISE-THE RICHARD AND RONAY MENSCHEL LIBRARY AT GEORGE EASTMAN HOUSE, ROCHESTER: STEIDL: GÖTTINGEN: P. 201

Beginning in 1894 and continuing through 1898, the Vienna Camera Club in Austria published a monthly journal known as the Wiener Photographische Blätter (Viennese Photographic Sheets). Edited by Professor Franz Schiffner of Vienna, the publication was a showcase for the club’s views on artistic photography, (it also featured technical articles) publishing beautiful hand-pulled photogravure plates by talented Austrian photographers as well as others from around the world. Contemporary author Manon Hübscher writes:

“The Wiener Camera-Klub was also intent upon establishing itself as the leader of a growing movement in Eastern Europe.  To this end, it provided a showcase for its work by issuing a magazine entitled the Wiener Photographische Blätter.” 1.

Ten years after it was first published, photographic historian Josef Maria Eder wrote this  journal:

 “devoted itself especially to the artistic side of photography and was notable for its beautiful illustrations.” 2.

1. MANON HÜBSCHER: THE VIENNA CAMERA CLUB-CATALYST AND CRUCIBLE: IN: IMPRESSIONIST CAMERA: PICTORIAL PHOTOGRAPHY IN EUROPE, 1888-1918 : MERRELL PUBLISHERS : 2006 : P.126 2. JOSEF MARIA EDER: HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY: TRANSLATED BY EDWARD EPSTEAN: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS: NEW YORK: 1945: P. 685

In the early 1890’s, the idea behind the formation of The Photographic Salon in England was a simple one: difference of opinion. Organized by The Linked Ring Brotherhood, a group of like-minded photographers with an international roster, the Salon’s aims were in advancing and promoting artistic photography. The first exhibit of the Salon was held in 1893 at the Dudley Gallery in Picccadilly and would continue there annually through 1904.  From 1905 until ending in 1909, the annual exhibit was held in London at the Galleries of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours at 5a Pall Mall East. 

“From 1893-1909 it was unique as an annual exhibition in solely promoting pictorial photography on an international scale and in setting a very high standard of selection of photographs to be shown under the best possible conditions at the time.” 1.

Please visit here to continue with our overview of The Photographic Salon.

1. THE ANNUAL EXHIBITIONS: IN: THE LINKED RING – THE SECESSION IN PHOTOGRAPHY IN BRITAIN, 1892-1910 : MARGARET F. HARKER: A ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY PUBLICATION: 1979: P. 95