‘The latest technology married to a glorification of the past found in the salt print the perfect medium. The subtlety of the paper negative and the saturation of the salt print were the perfect embodiment of the spirituality of France’s great cathedrals.’ (James Hyman, catalogue accompanying the exhibition From Sermons in Stones to Monsters of Modernity)
London’s prestigious gallery, James Hyman Photography, is currently the site of one of the most extensive and substantial exhibitions of rare, early salt prints that has ever been staged in a commercial gallery in this city. The photographs shown at the exhibition From Sermons in Stone to Monsters of Modernity: Early French Photography and the Church, which will be on display at the gallery until the 26th of this month, brings to light the intriguing marriage of photography and gothic architecture – two of the greatest achievements of Western society.
Salt prints were the earliest positive prints, an invention of William Henry Fox Talbot in 1840. Their production involved soaking a sheet of paper in a salt solution, followed by coating one side of the paper with silver nitrate, which resulted in the production of a light-sensitive silver chloride in the paper. After the paper had been dried, it needed to be put directly beneath a negative, under a sheet of glass, and exposed to sunlight for up to two hours. Salt prints were only made for around 20 years, until 1860, when they were gradually replaced by the albumen print.
The sublime prints of artists such as Edouard Baldus, Edmond Bacot, Hippolyte Bayard, Bisson Fe, Gustave le Gray, Ange Mailand, Pierre Manguin, Charles Marville, Charles Negre, Emile Pecarrere, Henri Le Secq and Carin Feres are included in this exhibition, which explores photographs produced in the 1840s and 1850s of Gothic churches and cathedrals in France. From Sermons in Stones to Monsters of Modernity: Early French Photography and the Church already references, as a title, the biblical significance of the portal programmes of Gothic cathedrals. In these first years of photography, in France, all aspects of the process of the featured photographs, from its commissioning to the production, have been a direct result of a revived interest in France’s cultural patrimony and a renewed appreciation of the country’s Gothical past.
The individual prints possess an arresting beauty enhanced by the combination of the photograph as precious hand-made object, and an intimate sense of spirituality. Photographs such as Charles Nègre’s Arles, pretre lisant dans le cloitre de Saint-Trophime, 1852 and Edouard Baldus’ Clotures de Saint-Trophime, Arles, 1851, to name just a few of this great selection, seem to celebrate and appropriate the past rather than anticipating the future. However, the buildings shown are not lifeless ruins. The present life of these masterworks of architecture is presented to the viewer by depicting details such as the architecture of the churches and cathedrals, the surrounding landscapes, and scenes of praying priests.
Although the commissioners and patrons of these photographs most likely gave the photographers exact instructions of how to depict their subjects – and their intentions seem to be of a documentary or propagandist nature – it seems that the results, displayed in this unique exhibition, are (to quote James Hyman), ‘a love letter to the church’ above all else. This, in combination with the creative and spiritual approach of these early photographers to the alchemy of the darkroom, makes mystery the dominant motif of the photographs.
It is a great privilege for the viewer to see this exhibition at James Hyman Photography, because most of the works of From Sermons in Stones to Monsters of Modernity have had very little visibility, as they have been kept deposited by their commissioners and patrons. The exhibition features loans as well as works for sale and can truly be called a museum-quality exhibition. James Hyman Photography has also produced an accompanying scholarly publication with the same title and a visit to the gallery, to view these poetic photographs depicting Gothic cathedrals in a stunningly clear quality, can only be highly recommended.
From Sermons in Stones to Monsters of Modernity: Early French Photography and the Church
until May 26 2012
James Hyman Photography
16 Saville Row
London W1S 3PD
