Paris sens dessus-dessous (Marville photographies 1852-1870)
by: Mellot, Philippe

Hardcover. Paris, Editions de Lodi, 1st, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, glossy boards in a matching bright dust jacket. Large format, 484 pages, FRENCH TEXT. A collection of over 500 historical photos of old Paris printed in sepia tone. Around 1832 Parisian-born Charles-Francois Bossu (1813-1879) shed his unfortunate last name (bossu means hunchback in French) and adopted the pseudonym Marville. After achieving moderate success as an illustrator of books and magazines, Marville shifted course in 1850 and took up photography, a medium that had been introduced 11 years earlier. His poetic urban views, detailed architectural studies, and picturesque landscapes quickly garnered praise.By the end of the 1850s, Marville had established a reputation as an accomplished and versatile photographer. From 1862, as official photographer for the city of Paris, he documented aspects of the radical modernization program that had been launched by Emperor Napoleon III and his chief urban planner, Baron Georges-Eugene Haussmann. In this capacity, Marville photographed the city's oldest quarters, and especially the narrow, winding streets slated for demolition. Even as he recorded the disappearance of Old Paris, Marville turned his camera on the new city that had begun to emerge. Many of his photographs celebrate its glamour and comforts, while other views of the city's desolate outskirts attest to the unsettling social and physical changes wrought by rapid modernization. Taken as a whole, Marville's photographs of Paris stand as one of the earliest and most powerful explorations of urban transformation on a grand scale. Clean, bright copy.