Jules Gervais-Courtellemont, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Jules Gervais-Courtellemont

French photographer

Date of Birth: 01-Jul-1863

Place of Birth: Avon, Île-de-France, France

Date of Death: 31-Oct-1931

Profession: photographer, photojournalist, war photographer

Nationality: France

Zodiac Sign: Cancer


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About Jules Gervais-Courtellemont

  • Jules Gervais-Courtellemont (1863–1931) was a French photographer who was famous for taking color autochromes during World War I.
  • He was born in the province of Seine-et-Marne, near Paris, but grew up in Algeria, where he developed a passion for the pre-colonial Orient and devoted most of his professional career in search of the exotic.
  • In 1894 he converted to Islam prior to making a pilgrimage to Mecca.
  • Images collected in Turkey, Palestine, Egypt, Tunisia, Spain, India, Morocco and China formed the basis for his popular illustrated lectures, which he illustrated with lantern slides.
  • With the outbreak of World War I, Courtellemont returned to his home province to record the war.
  • After the war, Courtellemont began working for an American publication.
  • He eventually became a photographer for National Geographic.
  • In 1911, Courtellemont opened the "Palais de l'autochromie" in Paris, which comprised an exhibition hall, studio, laboratory, and lecture hall with a seating capacity of 250.
  • It was in this hall that Courtellemont would project his autochromes both of the Orient and, after 1914, of the war, particularly the Marne battlefields.
  • These lectures proved to be so popular that Courtellemont issued a twelve-part series later bound in book form called The Battle of Marne and later a four-part series entitled The Battle of Verdun.
  • These are the first books ever published in color on war.
  • Between 1923 and 1925 he wrote a three-volume work entitled La Civilisation – Histoire sociale de l'humanité, illustrated with his photographs.
  • He was a lifelong friend of the novelist, Orientalist and photographer Pierre Loti.
  • While over 5,500 Gervais-Courtellemont autochromes survive in various institutional collections, his work in private hands is quite rare and sought after.
  • Courtellemon died in 1931.
  • His German counterpart is Hans Hildenbrand.

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