A lawyer and amateur photographer growing up in the comforts up the industrial bourgeoisie, René Desclée (1868-1953) had the privilege of being able to indulge in all of his passions. Trained in the classical humanities, he had his own photo lab and a state-of-the-art studio where be designed and built almost all of his equipment. Although he left behind some 7,000 photographs and considerable scientific and technical documentation of his work, the man himself remains a mystery; records of Desclée’s rich social life all agree on his extreme discretion.
Desclée’s greatest achievement remains his aerial photographs taken using a kite. His thorough experimentation to improve the process was largely motivated by his desire to modernize the vision of the local architectural heritage. From La Plaine des Manoeuvres, near the city center of Tournai, Desclée was able to capture unprecedented views of the cathedral and the picturesque buildings that surrounded it at the time. It was there that Desclée took his first aerial photographs in April 1910. Over the course of 30 years and 124 photographs, he reached the heights of technical mastery with this technique.
Read the full article on the French version of Le Journal.
