At the initiative of Jacques Sierpinski (ManifestO), the Bruits d’couloir association presents an exhibition of Amélie Galup, one of the first French women photographers, at Ciné32 in Auch (Gers). The event was made possible thanks to the Médiathèque du Patrimoine et de Photographie (MPP) to whom the Galup family donated the glass plate collection – 2500 negatives.
Born in 1856 in Bordeaux, Amélie Galup began photography in 1895. Although no information about her appears in the photographic societies of the time, she nevertheless set up a darkroom in her house in Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val (Tarn et Garonne) after marrying a magistrate from Albi in 1879. She developed and printed her own negatives on glass by contact. A real photo studio is even set up, using carpets or blankets as backgrounds, and members of her own family paraded under the lens of her camera. Real stagings was carried out using accessories and disguises, until an imaginary or even fantastic universe was recreated.
Over the years, she produced quasi-documentary series ahead of their time, and many portraits, observing her provincial environment, true galleries of society at the turn of the 19th century. Whether it was the peasant world of Tarn or Haute-Garonne (South West France), the open-air markets and animal markets or the destitute she was brought into contact with, she was thus a pioneer in the representation of the lifestyles of social groups, as much as in aesthetic innovation. Widowed at 45 (1901), she left the South-West to settle in Paris, and continued to practice family photography. She died there in 1943.
The sociologist Claude Harmelle discovered Amélie Galup’s work around 1980, and organized several exhibitions, with the help of the artist’s grandson, in Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val. Then, it was in Paris, at the Thiers Foundation in 1986. The same year, Orélie editions associated with the Mission de Patrimoine Photographique published “Amélie Galup, une femme photographe à la fin du siècle dernier ” with texts by Claude Harmelle. An avant-garde and original work to discover.
Jean-Jacques Ader
« Les visages du temps » exhibition by Amélie Galup at Ciné 32 in Auch, from February 28 to March 30, 2025 – ManifestO/Bruits d’couloir/Funds of the Heritage and Photography Media Library – Opening on March 7 at 8:15 p.m. and closing with J. Sierpinski on March 29. Information https://www.cine32.com/expo/
