Introduction

The 1896 international photographic art exposition hosted by the Photo-Club de Paris was held at the Galerie Des Champs Elysées in Paris from May 12-31, 1896. One franc gained admittance to the exposition exhibition, open every day from 10am to 6pm.

Three pages included with the portfolio (Liste des Exposants) lists 223 individual photographers whose work was accepted to this third international exposition.  Breakdown of photographers by major country:

116 – France
46 – England / Scotland
21 – Belgium
14 – Austria
11 – America

Other countries represented include Germany, Sweden, Spain, Russia, and Ireland – represented by Alfred Werner of Dublin.

This portfolio of large-plate, hand-pulled heliogravures (photogravures), was the personal copy of Photo-Club de Paris founder member Constant Puyo.  It is example  #128 of 470 deluxe copies printed on Vélin paper (wove plate) manufactured by Blanchet and Kléber of Rives, France. This exposition portfolio contains 42 individual large format photogravures (one has gone missing) and one lithographic plate-depicting an Art-Nouveau style drawing by the French artist Edme Couty.

All plates in this portfolio were printed by the French Atelier Charles Wittmann. Copper plates for the plate impressions were prepared by  Fillon et Heuse, two by Blechinger and one each by James Craig Annan and Walter Colls.  Letterpress was executed by L’Imprimerie Chaix.