It is unlikely that subscribers to L’Oeil de la Photographie are familiar with the name of Marcel Meys, a pre-war photographer who specialized in nude photography. He is not, however, entirely unknown, and if the entry on Wikipedia, although informative, is regrettably short, a few amateur photography sites such as La petite mélancolie(.net), DantéBéa(.com) and Un regard oblique(.com) contain numerous images from his work, even if sometimes confusion with his uncle leads to somewhat ridiculous assertions or when the search is complicated by indexes arranged in alphabetical order by first name! Each of these sites displays a certain number of identical photographs, from the same internet or printed sources, especially since, as is fair play, borrowings from competitors are not uncommon; but some are distinguished by original reproductions, such as Danté Béa which offers many autochromes (some of which are very dubious as to their autochromy, we will justify this later). Fairly specialized auctioneers (Ader, Marie St Germain, Le Mouel) also occasionally unearth originals, not all of which, far from it, are nude photographs: but landscapes, still lifes, genre scenes, etc.
Born in 1886, Marcel Meys began his photography career shortly after his twenties. Previously, like his uncle, the young Meys had begun art studies, but it was his uncle, not the nephew, who had attended the studios of Puvis de Chavannes and Gustave Moreau. Nevertheless, Marcel Meys’s aesthetic training is clearly evident in his photographic practice: his choice of natural sites, framing, depth of vision, the beauty of his models, and, again, his remarkable use of color, a keen sense of chromatic harmony. Above all, an artistic eye; and it’s just as well that he quickly focused on nude photography (… or rather nudes), in stereoscopic prints during the 1930s, which render the volume to the point that it’s hard to resist the urge to touch, feel, caress. Practically all of his publications were published in small, more or less clandestine series by publishers of erotica.
The complete collection of his publications did not, to my knowledge, exceed six titles (but only 2 or 3 are known to the sites cited above which sometimes reproduce them in extenso… or almost); in supposed chronological order, let us cite:
* Nus et paysages. Études artistiques. Éditions artistiques de Paris, n.d. (circa 1928-30). 44 photos in 32 pp. Sewn under window cover. 24 x 16 cm. Printed in heliogravure [Ill. 1-5]
* Plein Air N° 1 [Sea]. 37 splendid nude photographs by M. Meys. Images of Paris No. 6. Paris Editions, 1931. 32 pp. of B&W photos, pl. page. 15 x 24 cm in Italian, stapled under a cover illustration of a nude photograph; gravure printed in gray-blue [Ill. 6-10]
* Plein Air N° 2 [Mountain]. 35 nude photographs by M. Meys. Images of Paris No. 7. Éditions de Paris, 1931. 32 pp. of B&W photos, pl. page. 24 x 15.5 cm. Stapled under cover. Illustration of a nude photograph. Heliogravure printed alternating in sepia and brown, [Ill. 11-15]
* Plein Air N° 3 [[The Song of Water and the Forest]. 36 nude photographs by M. Meys
Images of Paris No. 8. Éditions de Paris, 1932. 32 pp. of B&W photos, page pl. + cover. 15.5 x 24 cm, Italian-style. Stapled under cover. Illustration of a nude photograph. Heliogravure printed in sepia and blue, alternating on each double page [Ill. 16-20]
* Nus académiques dans la nature; en relief par les anaglyphes. Ed. in anaglyphs, Paris undated (late 1930s). 16 pp. R°/V° of nudes in relief. 25 x 32 cm, stapled under cardboard cover with folded dust jacket. Heliogravure print. The work is anonymous, but the majority of the photos are by M. Meys, with the exception of pl. 6-7 and 12-13, whose authorship remains hypothetical [Ill. [21, 22].
* Nus Plein Air en relief par le procédé des anaglyphes. [Anaglyph ed.?], Paris, undated (late 1930s). 6 relief plates, all signed by M. Meys. 15.5 x 21 cm; spiral binding under cardboard cover [Ill. 23].
Finally, it is worth noting that, like many photographers who specialized exclusively or otherwise in nude photography, Marcel Meys was sought after by the best adult magazines of his time (which also featured the most prestigious names such as Brassaï, Kertesz, Sougez, Ergy Landau, G. Krull, etc.). Some of his outdoor nudes can be seen in Paris Magazine and Allo Paris from 1933-34 [Ill. 24-25].
(to be continued in the next column)
Alain-René Hardy
L’ivre de nus
[email protected]
