Real/Ideal - Photography in Mid-Nineteenth-Century France Karen Hellman

In the years following the invention of photography in 1839, practitioners in France gave shape to this intriguing new medium through experimental printing techniques and innovative compositions. The rich body of work they developed proved foundational to the establishment of early photography, from the introduction of the paper negative in the late 1840s to the proliferation of more-standardized equipment and photomechanical technology in the 1860s. The essays in this elegant volume investigate the early history of the medium when the ambiguities inherent in the photograph were ardently debated. Focusing on the French photographers who worked with paper negatives, especially the key figures E douard Baldus, Gustave Le Gray, Henri Le Secq, and Charles Ne gre, Real/Ideal explores photography's status as either (or both) fine art or industrial product, its repertoire of subject matter, its ideological functions, and even the ever- experimental photographic process itself. This book is published in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center from August 30 through November 27, 2016.

KAREN HELLMAN is assistant curator of photographs at the J. Paul Getty Museum, where SARAH FREEMAN is associate conservator of paper conservation. SYLVIE AUBENAS is the director of the department of photographs and prints at the Bibliothe que Nationale de France, Paris. ANNE DE MODENARD is curator at the Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Muse es de France, Paris. PAUL-LOUIS ROUBERT is assistant professor at Universite Paris 8 and president of the Socie te franc aise de la photographie, Paris. KARLYN OLVIDO is a graduate student in the history of photography at the University of California, Riverside.