Biography
Gustave Le Gray (1820-1884) started off as a painter but his paintings never gained any respect. He gains his reputation as a photographer and receives his first commissions. In 1850, he takes the first official photograph of a French Head of State, Louis Napoléon Bonaparte. He then becomes the majestic family’s official photographer.
Le Gray is responsible for the invention of negatives on glass plates then on dry waxed paper. This above all technical research paradoxically permits him to be the first to obtain practical contingencies to achieve photographic abstraction, a profoundly aesthetic reflection.
«It is my wish that photography, instead of slotting into the domain of industry or commerce, enters the art world. That is its only, veritable place, and it is on this track that I will always try to make it progress. It is up to people who strive for its progress to ensure that this idea is firmly rooted.» GLG
COUNTRY : France
THEMES :
Landscape
COLLECTIONS :
Masters