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Thesis

French

ID: <

10670/1.5980e4

>

Where these data come from
Birth of the photographic industry. The Neurdein, editors of imaginary (1863-1918)

Abstract

This research deals with the influence of a photographic company on the representation of sites in France in the context of tourism and, more generally, on the image market at the turn of the 20th century. Simple photographic studios during the Second Empire became true publishing houses or photographic proto-agencies, which produced and distributed their images in a variety of contexts and media. Photography is thus conceived as a product, with profitability in mind, and integrates a collection which is constantly updated, in connection with the changing activities of the company according to the markets. The case of the company Neurdein frères (1863–1917) and the study of its organization, its functioning, and its evolution, conveys the elaborate construction of its "views of France". From the work of its operators to that of its sales representatives, the company shapes and selects its photographs and hence conceives a true policy regarding the success of their images. The phenomenon is reinforced by the production of new illustrated formats, notably postcards, the success of which is setting in in France in the 1890s. This thesis, based on a cultural and economic history of photography, adopts a threefold approach: that of the company, that of the postcard as an object and that of the image market. The corpora, centered in particular on the Mont Saint-Michel and the Eiffel Tower, for which Neurdein were in charge of the concession of souvenir objects between 1889 and 1917, are put into relation and questioned in order to account for powerful cultural mechanisms. Created to circulate on all kinds of editorial objects, from fascicle to plate, from postcard to newspaper, the images marketed by the company Neurdein frères obey certain criteria of representation and almost become a norm: ubiquitous and standardized, they participate in the formation of a touristic or stereotypical identity of the sites.

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