Images of the Commune rebellion, which took place in Paris in 1871, are being shown in the Orsay Museum from March 16th until June 11th 2000. Strangely enough the Orsay railway station, transformed into the present museum a few years ago, was built on the ruins of the French Audit office building destroyed during the Commune.
There are two exhibitions held together in the museum, one on the role Gustave Courbet played during the civil war which opposed revolutionaries and regular troops following France's defeat in its war against Prussia and the other about how photographers covered these bloody events. Among them was Bruno Braquehais, who had previously produced photographs of nudes which led to face trouble with police, and to whom the Museum of Art and History of St Denis is now paying homage.
At the end of the reign of Napoleon III, Paris was the capital of photography but most photographers were only concerned with the production of portraits while photo reporting was limited to showing army parades.
The Crimean war and the U.S civil war had received the attention of photographers but before and after battles. The Commune uprising was thus the first event which led to instant photo reporting though all actors operating a camera abstained from covering combats and limited themselves to showing incoming actions and their aftermath.
Over 1,700 snapshots were taken between June and December 1871 by several photographers who had the opportunity of being on the spot to face action for the first time in the history of French photography.
However most major photographers abstained from covering these events. Gustave Le Gray was in Egypt at that time while others like Nadar, who had taken photographs of the daily life in Paris when Prussian troops besieged that city in 1870, Charles Nègre or Baldus did not roam the streets of the French capital to take spectacular pictures of the violent battles which took place there.
Home
