Exhibition dates: 24th October, 2025 – 1st March, 2026

Curators: Tamara Berghmans (FOMU collection curator and researcher) and Ingrid Leonard (researcher at FOMU)

Adolphe Neyt (Belgian, 1830-1892)
Seascape
1881
Carbon print
FOMU Collection

An exhibition on an eclectic subject that I knew nothing about before assembling this posting: 19th century Belgian photography.

In order to give a better understanding of the life of the photographers I have added their dates and bibliographic information where possible.

My favourite photograph in the posting is the mysterious and atmos/pheric Portrait of Marguerite Khnopff by the artist Fernand Khnopff (c. 1900, below), where “atmos” are the “atoms” of energy and mood that surround the subject, the vapour that envelopes the body.

Dr Marcus Bunyan

Many thankx to FOMU for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

The Early Gaze exhibition documents the birth of Belgian photography, from the very first mug shots to groundbreaking imagery in the arts, medical science and justice. It shows how an elite pastime grew out to become a powerful tool for capturing, controlling and constructing identity.

Early Gaze casts a fresh light on the rise and development of photography in 19th-century Belgium. The invention of photography did not only bring technological novelty, but also changed the way we see ourselves and the world. What began as a marvel of innovation quickly expanded into an instrument for control and image-building.

You will get a new perspective on the photographic pioneers who co-wrote the story of a young nation. You will discover forgotten portraits and unknown stories, and experience how the first photographic gaze still continues to influence our contemporary visual culture through phenomena such as agency, and consent.

Early Gaze illustrates that from the very start, photography was not a neutral registration of reality but a powerful instrument that helped shape the story of the ruling class.

The exhibition is accompanied by the book Early Gaze, published by Hannibal Books. With numerous unique photos by François Braga, Joseph Pelizarro, Guillaume Claine, Joseph Ernest Buschmann, Edmond Fierlants and others. Hardcover, Dutch/English, 304 pages, available for €55 in the FOMU shop.

Text from the FOMU website

installation view of the exhibition 'Early Gaze: Unseen Photography from the 19th Century' at FOMU, Antwerp

Installation views of the exhibition Early Gaze: Unseen Photography from the 19th Century at FOMU
© Tom Cornille / © FOMU

Early Gaze casts a fresh light on the rise of photography in 19th-century Belgium.

In 1839 the world was changed forever by the invention of photography. For the first time it was possible to capture reality with the use of light. Whereas France and England introduced this revolutionary technique, Belgium quickly followed.

In the young nation of Belgium – independent since 1830 – photography soon came to play a key role in the shaping of a national identity. Embracing the new medium, Belgian pioneers captured people, cities, landscapes and historical events. But what they didn’t show is just as telling. Not everyone had access to photography, and that is why photos also expose 19th-century power relations.

Countless unknown images and stories have come to light over the past years. At the same time there was a change in mindset about photography and cultural heritage. Early Gaze considers the questions these photos invoke today. Who was depicted, and who was not? Who took the pictures, and why? Which photos were kept? For one thing very soon became clear: photography was more than a technical novelty. It is a way of seeing, capturing and remembering.

This exhibition shows rare and never-seen-before images, original cameras and the earliest photographic techniques. Themes such as art, science, reportage, propaganda and colonialist image-making showcase photography’s versatility and force.

Early Gaze invites you to discover the first sixty years of Belgian photography: not as a closed chapter, but rather as a story that continues to evolve.

1/ A Magic Moment

The invention of photography in 1839 was a magical event: for the first time you could truly capture a moment from real life!

Two different techniques arose in France and England in this period. Frenchman Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre developed the daguerreotype: a unique image on a metal plate. In England, William Henry Fox Talbot invented the calotype: a negative- to-positive process using paper.

Not only did the techniques differ, so did the way in which these inventions were marketed. Daguerre, a clever businessman, immediately distributed a manual that made the technique gain popularity. Talbot decided on a patent: whoever wanted to use his method, would have to pay. This limited the popularity of the calotype.

In Belgium it was mainly the daguerreotype that found immediate success. Unfortunately, most early photographs were lost. Only a few examples were preserved, including two daguerreotypes of Saint Nicholas Church in Ghent, made by François Braga and Joseph Pelizzaro.

2/ From Experiment to Industry

Photography evolved at a rapid pace in the 19th century: from experiment to profession, from studio to industry.

In its pioneer years (1839-1842) photography was expensive, technically complex, and at times dangerous due to the use of chemical substances. Scientists, artists and optics professionals experimented, presented their results to academies, and applied for patents.

From 1842 a new profession arose: the portrait photographer. The high demand for portraits caused many engravers and miniature painters to switch to photography. Most of them did not yet have permanent photo studios, but travelled around. New techniques, such as wet collodion plates and the carte de visite, made the medium become more affordable and popular from around 1850. The number of photo studios – both small enterprises and larger ateliers – then grew quickly. The profession offered financial independence to many, as well as a chance at social advancement. Women were also active in the field, even if they often remained invisible or worked only under their initials.

Photography became a modern industry towards the end of the century. Belgian pioneers were internationally successful with their ready-made photographic materials. The introduction of simple devices by Kodak and Van Neck allowed even amateurs to document their lives. Photography became an everyday and personal medium.

Travelling photographers

In the early years of photography, many portrait photographers went from town to town. There were not enough customers yet to support a studio in a fixed location. Photographers advertised in newspapers, mentioning when they would be staying at a certain location or hotel. These pioneers often came from abroad. One Madame Guyard, for instance, was a travelling daguerreotypist. Her advertisement made her appear to be Parisian, though she was actually from Brussels and named Elisabeth Vandenplas. Were the French name and the reference to Paris meant to heighten her credibility as a photographer?

The democratising impact of the carte de visite

Photography underwent a major change in the second half of the 19th century. In 1854, Frenchman André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri introduced the carte de visite: a small-sized portrait (6 by 9 cm) on cardboard. He designed a multi-lens camera that allowed for multiple exposures to be registered on a single photographic plate. The photographs were then cut and separately glued onto cardboard: this way you could get multiple poses at the price of a single take. The photographer’s name and specialisation were listed on the back of the image. Cartes de visite made portrait photography quicker, cheaper and more accessible, especially to the middle class. Collecting these portraits of family, friends and acquaintances became all the rage. Countless commercial portrait studios appeared in Belgium, such as those of Adèle Daams, Ghémar Frères and François Deron.

Belgian camera manufacturers

In the 19th century’s final decades, Belgium saw a small scale, artisan production of cameras. Belgian manufacturers, often furniture makers by trade, built cameras locally as well as importing foreign models. France, England and Germany dominated the market, but Belgium as well had some well-known producers like Van Neck (Antwerp), the Drayé brothers (Merksem), Le Docte (Brussels) and Hofmans (Elsene). This era of camera production, however, was short-lived. Around 1900, increasing foreign competition put an end to this Belgian camera manufacturing.

Photo industry

Belgium initially was mostly a consumer of photographic technology. Between 1879 and 1900, small photochemical companies appeared in Ghent, Kortrijk and Brussels. Only some enterprises, such as that of Van Monckhoven and Beernaert Dry Plate from Ghent and that of Lieven Gevaert from Antwerp, truly achieved a breakthrough. They met the growing demand by professional and amateur photographers for faster and more user-friendly methods such as gelatin dry plates, optics, light-sensitive emulsions and photographic paper.

First female photo studio: Dorothée Detournay

In 1864 Dorothée J. Louise Detournay opened her own photo studio in Brussels, which was unusual for a woman. Specialising in ladies’ portraits, she herself stood behind the camera: a unique selling point that she accentuated in her advertising. After marrying Henri Dupont she worked at the Dupont studio, which was sometimes referred to as ‘Mr & Mme Henri Dupont’. After their divorce in 1877 she remained active in the field, together with her son Georges Dupont. She pioneered the use of electric lighting for her photographic work, displaying it at various exhibitions.

Gevaert Photo-Producten N.V.

In 1882, young Lieven Gevaert began working at the framing studio owned by his mother, Maria-Theresia Bruynseels. Together they opened a photo studio in Antwerp in 1890. Imported photo-paper was expensive and unreliable. That is why Gevaert began producing his own paper in 1894. His first product, Calcium Paper, was an instant success. Dozens of new varieties, such as Blue Star and Gevaluxe, would be added in the following decades – all with particular differences in sheen, texture and thickness. From a small studio, Gevaert Photo-Producten N.V. (later Agfa-Gevaert) grew into a major international player that could compete with companies such as Kodak and Ilford.

3/ Visualising Class

Due to the rise of photography, portraiture changed considerably in the 19th century. Initially it was an expensive and technically complex medium, only accessible to nobility and the rising bourgeoisie. Entrepreneurs, industrials and lawyers had their portraits taken or, for example, their castle domains photographed.

About halfway through the century, portrait studios offering a fixed selection of poses to a growing urban middle class came up everywhere. The carte de visite made photographic portraiture affordable. These small portrait pictures give a clear insight into the era’s dominant norms regarding class and gender: dignity, elegance and self- control were important. From 1870 onwards, ferrotype offered a first affordable chance for workers to be photographed.

Around 1890, snapshot photography and user-friendly cameras by companies such as Kodak and the Belgian Van Neck ushered in a new phase. Amateur photographers from the higher middle class would record their surroundings in informal situations.

Still, certain groups stayed largely invisible: people of colour or queer couples were rarely pictured. Photography, then, did not only capture memories, but also deepened social inequalities and notions of identity.

Stereo photography

Stereo photography is a technique in which a two-lens camera takes two photos of the same subject using slightly different angles. The camera simulates the distance between human eyes. When viewed through a stereoscope, the image appears to gain depth. Stereoscopes vary from portable models to large pieces of furniture.

Free time in the family album

Around 1890, a new era arrived with the advent of user-friendly cameras by companies like Kodak and the Belgian Van Neck. Amateur photographers from the higher middle class began photographing their daily lives: family trips, holidays and homely situations. See this album, for example: the image itself of a woman riding a bicycle even seems to have been taken from another bicycle in motion. These playful, spontaneous photos show how photography was coming within the reach of more people. That is how leisure time and personal memories became a fixed presence in a family’s visual memory.

Status in the portrait

In 19th-century photo studios the customers would pose sitting or standing, beautifully dressed and surrounded by prop objects to accentuate their status. Poses and props were often the same, and they were strongly determined by notions regarding social class, gender and current trends. Men and boys took serious poses with books, walking canes or rifles, while women and girls appeared in long dresses with parasols. Deviations, such as a smile, were inappropriate. You were allowed to show yourself, but within the boundaries of bourgeois expectation patterns. The result: stately portraits that resembled paintings and were supposed to radiate the portrayed person’s social status.

4/ From Document to Art

The value of photography as a versatile tool in art and science was recognised early on. In Belgium the medium soon came to play a key role in the systematic documentation of heritage and art objects: think of medieval sculpture, the Flemish primitives and baroque paintings. A small yet lucrative market arose for this type of art reproductions. Artists also turned to photography as a tool for sketches and preparatory drafts.

The end of the 19th century saw the rise of pictorialism. This movement considered photography to be a fully-fledged art form and sought inspiration in painting. Amateur photographers from the higher bourgeoisie in particular created poetic, dreamy images with a central focus on their personal expression. Photography thus became a means of presenting yourself artistically as well as socially. The Belgian state’s purchase of a large collection of photos by Pictorialists marked an important turning point in the recognition of photography as an art form. The medium, which up to then had been mostly connected to the industrial arts, now claimed its position amidst the visual arts.

Between art and eroticism

What is the difference between nude studies for artists and erotic nude photographs? Up to 1867, Belgian law forbade photos that violated ‘good morals’. It was unclear what exactly this meant, and the boundary between art and eroticism was a thin one. Whereas Belgium played an important role in the publication of erotic literature in the late 19th century, saucy photographs typically came from France. In addition there were photo magazines with nude models for artists. These were officially intended as a tool for painters, but attracted other audiences as well.

In the course of the 19th century, erotic imagery changed from being a luxury product to something that was affordable to a large group of people.

Pictorialism

Through the use of photography, the pictorialists sought a personal interpretation of reality. They strove for harmony in line, colour and atmosphere, using techniques such as gum, carbon and platinum printing to achieve a painterly effect. Photographers thus stayed fully in control: they could adjust tone values, add or remove details, and intervene in the printing process using brushes, pens or smudging tools. Pictorialists often printed on texture-rich paper or Japanese silk paper, making each photograph a unique work or art.

5/ National Identity

In the young nation of Belgium, photography played a key role in the representation of social status and the formation of a national entity. Photos of landscapes, monuments and historical figures supported the notion of Belgium as a nation state with a history and heritage of its own. King Leopold I soon understood photography’s potential for depicting the nation, just like other government entities and organisations.

Photographers themselves took initiatives of their own. They submitted project proposals, requested funding, and actively contributed to inventories of heritage. While the interest in the past grew, the lens was also aimed at the present: modernisation, industrial expansion and cities in transformation.

Industrial photography documented impressive infrastructure, such as railroads and factories. Such photographs accentuated Belgium’s image as a progressive industrial state. The easy reproducibility of photos caused photography to spread out quickly and to be used in education, promotional campaigns and propaganda. Thus photography was further shaped as a medium that balances between capturing, imaging and influencing.

Patrimony through the lens of Fierlants

In 1860, the Antwerp city government gave Edmond Fierlants the assignment of photographing city views and monuments just before the advent of drastic changes. Brussels and Louvain followed suit. Fierlants’ photographs, often in large formats, show medieval buildings, baroque churches and endangered urban areas. His monumental series of 165 images made Fierlants a leading figure in Belgian photography. This work aligns with the national ambition of preserving historical heritage in the Flanders and Brabant regions.

Patrimony through the lens of Radoux

As early as 1857, Gilbert Radoux photographed Belgian monuments using collodion negatives on glass. Recent analysis shows that he worked with a photographer from the French company of Bisson Frères in Ghent, Bruges, Louvain and Antwerp. Their images, featuring identical shooting positions and details, were also distributed in Paris. Radoux suddenly ended his practice in 1861. His photos long remained undervalued from a technical perspective, but today he is considered an early pioneer of Belgian architecture photography.

Britons in Belgium

Among the first photographers in Belgium (1840-1860) were a striking amount of Englishmen and Scots. They continued the tradition of travelling and capturing landscapes and monuments. Their images reflect a nostalgic, medieval Belgium. In 1846 William Henry Fox Talbot created one of Mechelen’s oldest calotypes of the city. Egbert Moxham established himself in Bruges in 1857, taking several photos there. His salted paper prints on decorative golden-edged cardboard appear to be intended for sale. Sir William Newton, too, took photographs in Bruges.

6/ Colonial Perspective and World’s Fairs

There was a downside to the splendour of young Belgium. In 1885 Leopold II, king of Belgium, also became the sole ruler and owner of the Congo Free State. Photography played a key role in the promotion of this colonial project. Belgian world’s fairs in 1885, 1894 and 1897 in particular made it painfully clear how deeply the ties ran between ambitions for progress and colonialism.

Without their consent, Congolese people were exhibited and photographed at these international exhibitions in Antwerp and Brussels. Such colonial photography was not neutral: it reflects the inequality and power relations of the colonial system. Mainly produced by white male photographers, the images confirmed the notion of European superiority and reduced the portrayed Congolese persons to objects: dehumanised and voiceless. In addition to photos of Congolese persons in a colonial context, other people of colour were also photographed from a colonial perspective. These images served as propaganda for the so-called ‘civilising mission’, reinforced racist stereotypes, and legitimised colonial domination.

7/ Photography as a Scientific Instrument

Driven by positivist thinking and belief in progress, photography became an essential tool for scientific disciplines in the 19th century. It was regarded as objective proof and used in observation, classification and documentation. In medical science, photography helped with the documentation of illness reports, surgery and anatomical anomalies. Patients are often recognisably pictured without consent or regard for their privacy.

Photographic micrography opened up a whole new world: bacteria, cells and tissue structures could now be studied visually. This marked the start of modern microbiology. In astronomy, photography replaced the eye of the observer, and the first photos of the moon were created. Within the legal domain, photography was used from 1860 onwards for identification purposes, and later also for the documentation of crime scenes.

In this manner the medium evolved into a powerful instrument of knowledge, control and power, but not without ethical consequences.

8/ Photoreporting On The Rise

Over the course of the 19th century, photography evolved into a technique that also allowed for the photographing of moving subjects. Photographers in Belgium documented a variety of subjects, such as processions, disasters, public celebrations and technological spectacles such as air balloon rides.

The options were initially limited by long exposure times and complicated methods such as the wet collodion process. Around 1870, new techniques brought more speed and flexibility. The introduction of the gelatin dry plate negative on glass in 1871, for example, was a turning point: the plate could be prepared in advance and developed afterwards. Thanks to this invention, photographers could work in a more dynamic manner.

Around 1900 photography became more mobile and faster, gaining it a regular presence in the illustrated press. From around 1885 photomechanical techniques such as halftone printing gradually replaced drawings. This allowed for image and text to be printed at the same time. It made photography a modern means of communication, an evolution with a lasting impact on both journalism and our visual culture.

Press release from FOMU

François Braga (Italian active Belgium, c. 1810 – after 1883) & Joseph Pelizzaro (Belgium, 1803- )
Ghent, view of Predikherenlei and Predikherenbrug
1839
Daguerreotype
STAM Collection – Ghent City Museum

François Braga was an Italian-born photographer and optician, active in Belgium, who is noted for taking one of the earliest known photographs in Belgium in 1839. In October 1839, Braga and his partner Joseph Pelizzaro created daguerreotypes of the Predikherenbrug and Predikherenlei in Ghent, which are considered the earliest photographic views of the city.

Along with his friend, print and engraving seller Joseph Pelizzaro, Braga captured the scene from the second floor of Judge Philippe Van de Velde’s residence on the Ajuinlei. Out of the four original plates they created, two are preserved in the STAM – Ghent City Museum, while the other two have been lost.

Joseph Pelizzaro (also spelled Pellizzaro) was a Ghent-based print seller, engraver, and a pioneering photographer born on August 29, 1803. He was the first professional daguerreotypist with a fixed abode in Ghent, Belgium.

Joseph-Ernest Buschmann (Belgian, 1814-1853)
Groenplaats, Antwerp
1848-1850
Salt print
FOMU Collection

Louis Ghémar (Belgian, 1820-1873)
Portrait of King Leopold I
1856
Salt print
Janssens Collection, Antwerp

In 1855 Louis Ghémar (1820-1873) opened a photo studio in Brussels, next to the studio of Jules Géruzet. In the beginning Louis Ghémar worked together with Robert Sévérin. Sévérin took the photos and Ghémar made the retouches and eventually colours the photos. But Sévérin left Brussels and was replaced by Louis Ghémars half-brother, Léon Auverlaux. From then on the name of the studio was changed to Ghémar Frères.

Louis Ghémar died in 1873 but the studio kept the name Ghémar Frères until 1894 when Géruzet takes over the studio, including all the negatives of Ghémar.

Ghémar Frères (Belgian, active 1859-1894)
Self portrait Louis Ghémar at a piano
c. 1862
Albumen print
Collection FOMU

The photo studio of the two brothers Ghémar was the most renowned Belgian photostudio in the period 1855-1870.

Louis Ghémar (Belgian, 1820-1873)
The hot air balloon “Le Géant”, by Nadar shortly before takeoff at the Botanical Garden in Brussels
1864
Albumen print
Collection Yper Museum

In the 19th century, hot air balloons embodied the promise of progress.

Balloon flights were spectacular events that drew large crowds, and the attention of photographers. Rising into the air symbolised technological ambition, curiosity and modernity. Capturing these moments via photography, however, proved challenging. Long exposure times made it difficult to photograph movement or unpredictable events.

In the exhibition Early Gaze you can see how photographers documented balloon ascents, such as the famous lift-off of Le Géant in Brussels in 1864. While the ascent could be photographed, unexpected moments, like the balloon’s emergency landing near Ypres, were still too fleeting for the camera and had to be represented through drawings instead.

Text from the FOMU Instagram web page

Unknown photographer
Hot air balloon
1899
Albumen print
Collection Janssens

Adolphe Neyt (Belgian, 1830-1892)
‘View of the Moon’, from Atlas photographique de la lune
1869
Albumen print
Collection University Library Ghent bieb

After some uninspired steps in politics, wealthy industrialist Adolphe Neyt decided to dedicate himself to his real interests: the sciences and fine arts. As part of this change in direction, he started to take photographs, convinced that the medium had a vital role to play in scientific research. In 1867, Neyt produced a series of stereoscopic photographs of micro-organisms, earning him international success and a silver medal at the World Exhibition in Paris. After this recognition, he ventured into astronomical photography. Neyt had a private observatory built at his home in Ghent’s Coupure to take shots of the moon. The project led in 1869 to his most impressive publication, the Atlas photographique de la lune. …

Although Neyt was not the first photographer to make recordings of the lunar surface, his results were distinguished from previous examples by their unrivalled clarity and sharpness. They were among the highlights of the Belgian pavilion at the 1873 World Exhibition in Vienna.

Text from the Dominique Somers website

Alexandre (Albert Edouard Drains) (Belgian, 1855-1925)
Iguanodon de Bernissart, excavated in 1878
1883
Albumen print
FOMU Collection

Born Edouard Albert Drains in Paris (1855-1925), the photographer known professionally as Alexandre moved to Brussels in 1875. His technical bravura, his willingness to try anything and his use of “instantaneous” flash photography attracted the attention of Khnopff. He was in close contact with Les XX, especially Jena Delville, Xavier Mellery and Mellery’s former pupil Khnopff. In 1896 Alexandre executed platinum plates of works by Khnopff, which Khnopff then enhanced with color, creating a series of unique new images. This work earned Alexandre an invitation to join the British Linked Ring Brotherhood (1893-1908), eventually becoming official photographer to the royal family. He died at Nice.

Text from the Anamorfose website

Alexandre (Albert-Édouard Drains) probably took his father’s Christian name as a pseudonym. He was a professional photographer, and member of the Association belge de photographie (ABP) as of 1886. In 1888 Alexandre already had a solo exhibition at the Cercle Artistique et Littéraire in Brussels. He was a prominent member of the Brussels bourgeoisie, and he had been running a professional photographer’s studio with his mother in the popular Marolles quarter since at least 1881. He opened a new studio in a posh uptown part of the city in 1897. He took photographs of a variety of subjects and in several photographic styles. This opened up very different opportunities for him.

An appointment as the official photographer of the Belgian royal family illustrates his prominence in the capital’s bourgeois circles. He was an accomplished portrait photographer but was also involved in the promotion of King Leopold II’s Congo Free State through photographic exhibitions and large-scale projections of photographs taken by the King’s colonial agents. One of these events was in honour of Henry Morton Stanley, the King’s chief agent, returning to Brussels in 1890. These activities may well have made Alexandre the ideal candidate to become the cinematographer of the International Exhibition of Brussels in 1897. His cooperation with L’Optique belge, the Brussels subsidiary of the French company L’Optique, may have made him the first Belgian cinematographer ever.

He produced a substantial number of photographs between 1880 and 1897, both professional commissions and artistic photographs with which he participated in exhibitions in Belgium and abroad. Alexandre was also connected to the Brussels artists association L’Essor and created works of art together with the symbolist painter Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921) in a mixed technique involving photography, pastels and chalk. As a notable professional member of the ABP Alexandre was favourably disposed to the emerging amateur pictorialist movement, and together with his fellow member, Hector Colard, he organised an exhibition of English Pictorialist photographers at the Cercle Artistique et littéraire in 1892. Next to his ABP membership as a professional photographer, Alexandre was a protector-member of the amateur pictorialist group L’Effort.

Alexandre is cited as a prominent pictorialist at the 1899 Berlin Exhibition of Art Photography, in which he participated with several photographs. The fifth issue of 1903 of Art in Photography, an authoritative German journal on Pictorialist photography, puts Alexandre in a category of his own, with nine of his photographs, and he is mentioned with his The Anatomy Lesson in the second issue of 1905. This is illustrative of the impasse Pictorialism was getting into. The photograph was already made before January 1888, at which time it was shown in the Cercle Artistique in Brussels. It could hardly be considered as a prime example of contemporary photography in 1905. In early pictorialist fashion, The Anatomy Lesson mimics painting. It clearly refers to Rembrandt’s The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp (1632). It also demonstrates his use of the magnesium lightning, an early nineteenth century flash device which could be ignited simultaneously with the opening of the camera’s shutter.

Most of his work after 1897 is inspired by the naturalist and impressionist tendencies of French Pictorialism. In 1907, two years after The Anatomy Lesson appeared in Art in Photography, Alexandre ceased to participate regularly in exhibitions. Although he used techniques which were innovative in his day, such as magnesium lighting and photographic enlargement, his artistic activity was limited in time, as he was increasingly focusing on commercial photography after he opened his studio in 1897. He continued in his capacity as royal photographer but closed his business in 1914.

Anonymous. “Alexandre,” on the Ghent University website Nd [Online] Cited 08/02/2026. Used under fair use conditions for the purposes of education and research

François Smeesters (Belgian, 1839-1922)
Aid for people with reduced mobility
1888-1890
Albumen print
FOMU Collection

From 1862 onwards, Smeesters was listed in the population registry as a journeyman photographer at various private addresses.

Ernest Huybrechts (Belgian, 1863- )
‘L’Explosion’, in La Catastrophe d’Anvers
6 septembre, 1889
Album contenant 18 planches
Au profit des victimes (Anvers: Section anversoises de L’Association belge de Photographie / Jos. Maes, 1889), 1889, Lichtdruk
Collection FOMU

Disasters, especially their aftermath, were an important theme for early reportage photographers in Belgium. The images are some of the rare early attempts to visually document widely discussed incidents and then distribute them comercially. Some of the photographs were sold to raise funds for victims, reflecting an early fusion of photographic journalism and charitable action.

Images of the disaster at the Corvilain gunpowder factory workshop in Antwerp in 1889, which claimed 95 lives, were compiled in two publications edited by Joseph Maes. One was sold for the benefit of the victims, the others served as a visual record of the tragedy.

Text from the FOMU Instagram web page

Charles E. Hofmans (Brussels)
Hofmans Multiphoto camera
1890
Multi-lens camera for 12 exposures, format 2.5 × 3cm on 13 × 18cm plates, twelve meniscus lenses, fixed focus, fixed aperture, camera cover serves as shutter
Collection FOMU

Charles Hofmans was a cabinet maker from Brussels, Belgium who became a well known camera manufacturer.

Hugo Piéron (Belgian, 1845-1906)
Frozen Scheldt, Antwerp
1891
Albumen print
Janssens Collection, Antwerp

Hugo Piéron was known for photographing Antwerp, including scenes of the city’s gates and the frozen Scheldt River in 1891, and he operated a studio under the name Pieron-Loodts, having taken over a studio around 1867.

Hugo Piéron (Belgian, 1845-1906)
Frozen Scheldt, Antwerp
1891
Albumen print
Janssens Collection, Antwerp

Victor Barras (Belgian, 1845-1916)
Four women and two dogs, Liège
1894
Collodion printing-out paper
15.9 × 11.4 cm
Collection FOMU

Little is known about this image, titled ‘Four women and two dogs’ that is part of the FOMU Collection and currently on show in the exhibition Early Gaze.

Within the FOMU collection, which contains millions of objects, we regularly encounter photographs whose origin or context is unknown. When information is scarce, we look closely at details within the image that might tell us more. In this case, handwritten notes on the back of the photograph (image 2) offer important clues.

The people portrayed are most likely members of the photographer’s personal circle. This can be deduced from a note on the reverse that reads: “… de la famille Duvivier Leys … de l’année 1894 et de ma fille chérie Louise Maes.”

The photograph is a daylight collodion silver print, an early photographic technique in which a collodion-coated glass plate had to be exposed and developed immediately after preparation – a process requiring speed and precision. The photograph was taken in 1894 by photographer Victor Barras in his studio in Liège.

Text from the FOMU Instagram web page

Henri Van Heurck (Belgian, 1838-1909)
X-ray of chest deformed by corset
1896-1897
Daylight gelatin silver print
Collection GUM – Ghent University Museum

Henri Ferdinand van Heurck (28 August 1838 – 13 March 1909) was a Belgian diatom specialist and microscopist. Born in an industrialist family, he taught himself microscopy and botany and wrote several pioneering works on diatoms, their study under the microscope and their preservation. He pioneered the use of electric lighting and its use in microphotography.

Henri Van Heurck (Belgian, 1838-1909)
X-ray from a mummified Egyptian Ibis
1897
Collection FOMU

Fernand Khnopff (Belgian, 1858-1921)
Portrait of Marguerite Khnopff
c. 1900
Daylight gelatin silver print
Collection FOMU

Khnopff’s use of photography highlighted, reflected on and contributed to the exploration of certain subjects and issues that defined European culture in the late nineteenth – early twentieth centuries in general as well as the artist’s œuvre in particular. These include the representations of the city of Bruges and its symbolic meaning in fin-de-siècle literature and visual tradition, the documentation of, and reaction to, Belgian colonialism in the Congo Free State as well as the representation of the colony in the colonising metropolis, and the employment of photographs as a substitute for a preparatory sketch or study at preliminary stage.

Text from the abstract of Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921): art and photography in the nineteenth century 2020

Khnopff’s oeuvre includes a large body of nearly monochromatic works on paper. A somewhat limited palette and restrained way of handling his medium become important features of his art, even when he is working in oils. The tendency towards monochromy in his work becomes an essential element in creating the remote and silent atmosphere of the scene.

Another factor in this aspect of his art, however, is the growing need for the photograph as reference, especially in his depictions of the city of Bruges (a kind of Shangi-la to him, a place he had only visited as a child). If he didn’t visit Bruges as an adult, the only plausible explanation for the accuracy of his later renderings of the town is the use of photography.

In public Khnopff disparaged the artistic merits of this growing medium and throughout his life carefully concealed the role photography played in the creation of some of his paintings.

After his death around forty photographs of Marguerite, who was both his sister and his favourite model, were discovered to remain despite her clearance of his studio and the destruction of much of his work and his personal papers. In them, she adopts poses in décor and costumes often alluding to Antiquity and the Far East, but also in dreamy contemporary scenes. It is clear that he was the photographer. Khnopff often did no more than rework the photographed motif in pastel or oil. …

Khnopff’s works based on photographs produced an image removed one more step from reality; remote, dreamlike, rendered in the shades and shadows of near monochrome which are perfect for conveying the ethereal ideas and themes of his art. This theatrical aspect of his photography makes him heir to slightly earlier photographers who were quite close to the Pre-Raphaelites such as Oscar Reijlander, Julia Margaret Cameron, Lewis Carroll and Lady Harwarden.

Associate Professor James McArdle. “November 12: Artifice,” on the On This Date in Photography website 12/11/2017 [Online] Cited 08/02/2026. Used under fair use for the purposes of education and research

Léon Bovier (Belgian, 1865-1923)
Portrait of Madeleine Bovier as a toddler
c. 1900
Daylight collodion silver print
FOMU Collection

Lambert Léon Bovier, born 6.3.1865. Photographic supplies. “Firm founded in 1889” (L’Echo de Courtrai, 22.8.1897). Already active as an amateur photographer in September 1886 when he was a member of the “Cercle des Touristes” and took views of the area between Spa and Stavelot. Recorded as a watchmaker domiciled in Liège, Rue Hocheporte at the occasion of his wedding in Liège on 6.7.1889.

1894-1914 > Bruxelles, Boulevard Anspach, 166<10-12> or 168<94-09; 14>
Partnership with Alphonse Roland (see that name) at this address, 1895-1897. Pictorialist (private address: Rue des Visitandines, 38). First prize winner in the fifth photography competition organised by the “Journal des Voyages” in 1894. Photographs on canvas imitating genre paintings. Corresponding member of the “Société Photographique de Lille” in 1900. Secretary of the “Cercle d’art photographique l’Effort”. Camera manufacturing. “Plates and papers of all makes. Recommended for radiographic laboratories. Construction of plate-holders for radiology” (Journal belge de radiologie, 1909). Reportedly lived in London [GB] from 1914 to 1917 and in Paris [F] from 1917 to 1918. Returned to Brussels after World War I. Bovier published several literary works in the 1920s under the pseudonym Léon Lambert. After his death, Bovier’s widow Antoinette Joséphine Marie Louise Robert (born Spa, 26.6.1868) was listed at this address under photographic suppliers until at least the 1950s. Their daughter “Madeleine” Marie Julie Pauline Bovier (born Brussels, 20.5.1896) would also play an active role in her father’s succession.

Text from the FOMU Directory of Belgian Photographers website

Léon Sneyers (Belgian, 1877-1949) 'L'Effort' 1901

Léon Sneyers (Belgian, 1877-1948)
L’Effort
1901
FOMU Collection

Jean Philippe Léon Sneyers, born 23.7.1877; died 24.9.1948. Architect-decorator, designer, art dealer and publicity agent, active from 1894. Also supplies for photographers at this address, according to the Mertens directory. Initiated into photography as an adolescent, when only 17 years old he was the president of a camera club for students, the “Detectiv-Club Belge”. Pictorialist. Landscapes, portraits and nudes. Secretary and leading light of the “Cercle d’art photographique l’Effort” (see that name). Member of the “Club d’amateurs photographes de Belgique”, which published several of his photographs in its “Bulletin”.

Both pupil and emulator of Paul Hankar, he discovered Viennese Secession architecture at the Turin exhibition in 1902. His surviving art nouveau buildings in Brussels include a house-cum-studio for the painter Albert Cortvriendt, Rue de Nancy, 6-8 and a shop front for Majolaine, Rue de la Madeleine, 7 created in 1904.

Commissioned by the government to design and decorate the science installation at the International Exhibitions in Liège, 1905, Brussels, 1910, and Ghent, 1913, and to design the Belgian installation at the exhibitions in Turin, 1902, Milan, 1906 and Venice, 1906-1907. He became a propagator of Viennese art nouveau via “L’Intérieur”, his art studio in Brussels at Rue de Namur, 9 which opened in 1906 and closed in 1918; thereafter Galerie Sneyers, Boulevard de Waterloo, 9 from 1918 to 1926. Collections of drawings and photographs in the “Archives d’Architecture Moderne” (AAM), Brussels. These constitute the small proportion of Sneyers’ archives saved from destruction in 1969.

Text from the FOMU Directory of Belgian Photographers website