Pierre Dubreuil

Pierre Dubreuil (March 5, 1872 – January 9, 1944) was a French photographer, born in Lille, who spent his career in France and Belgium. As a pioneer of modernist photography, Dubreuil embraced innovative techniques and ideas that were celebrated, criticized, and at times, overlooked. Over the course of his career, which was interrupted by both World Wars, Dubreuil's work was shown at the Photo-club de Paris, the Albright Gallery exhibition in Buffalo, New York, the Little Gallery of the Amateur Photography Magazine in London, and the Royal Photographic Society. In 1988, more than forty years after Dubreuil's death, photographer and collector Tom Jacobson revived interest in his work, seeking out long-forgotten and displaced works that culminated in an exhibition at the Musée d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (October 28, 1987 – January 5, 1988).

Life and career

Early life Pierre Dubreuil was born in a wealthy family, well established in the wallpaper trade. In 1888 he joined the Jesuit College of Saint-Joseph in Lille and started to take pictures with a half-plate camera aged sixteen. After serving for three years in the Saint-Omer Dragoons he started working with the photographer Louis-Jean Delton, who was specializing in horse subjects. In 1891 Pierre Dubreuil became a member of the Lille Photographic Society. There he met Robert Pauli who initiated him to the carbon and platinum printing techniques.

Career

Early years (1896–1900) Dubreuil's recognition first came in 1896, when his Sombre Clarté ("Dark Clarity") was shown in Brussels. Subsequently, Dubreuil exhibited five prints at the Photo-club de Paris, and by the turn of the century was internationally acclaimed, even upstaging Constant Puyo and Robert Demachy, the major figures of the Photo-club de Paris. By the turn of the century, 39 of Dubreuil's works were featured in Annuaire General et International de la Photographie, and German critic Fritz Loescher praised Dubreuil in Photographische Mitteilungen. Few of Dubreuil's works from this period survived; they may have been destroyed by the photographer himself, or destroyed in bombings during the Second World War. In 1912 Dubreuil again implored Stieglitz, sending him five exceptional prints ("Notre Dame de Paris," "Eléphantaisie," "Grand Place Brussels," "Mightiness," and "Cascade, Place de la Concorde"). Although Stieglitz did not include the works in Camera Work (Stieglitz was known for not including more avant-garde and Modernist works in the publication), Guided by his keen photographic eye, Jacobson continued to spot works by Dubreuil, gaining knowledge about the then obscure photographer. In 1980, Jacobson ventured to Belgium to investigate what he considered to be a photographic genius. Through the trials and tribulations of knowing neither French nor Flemish, Jacobson eventually came into contact with the Association Belge de Photographie et Cinematographie.

Finding Dubreuil's lost work

Through a set of coincidences Jacobson acquired his first Dubreuil print in London, and went on to pursue newly uncovered (thanks to his insistence) works found in the Belgian Association's collection. Through years of unrelenting research and insistence, Jacobson was able to collect major remaining works by Dubreuil, and was even pursued by Samuel Wagstaff, who at one point dismissed Dubreuil, only to recognize his mistake later.

Suszanne Muchnic of the LA Times recognized Jacobson's seven years researching Dubreuil, calling this "a major contribution to the field."

Vince Aletti of Village Voice described how "Virtually all of Dubreuil's surviving work, salvaged from oblivion by curator Tom Jacobson, floods this small room with charm and brilliance."

Notably, Vicki Goldberg declared the historical significance of the rediscovery of Dubreuil in American Photographer: "Dubreuil's daring pictorialist work may throw a wrench into the history of 20th century photography."

Philosophy, Quotes

Quotes by Dubreuil

"Chance is the enemy of the photographer"

"Every work should be the expression of an idea [...] This must never be left to chance ... I plan almost all of my works beforehand."

"In photography, a much greater importance should be given to the intellectual aspect of the work. Indeed, it should become the main artistic factor. Isn't it the intellectual work that is responsible for creating the feelings we experience in the presence of a masterpiece? Isn't it thanks to this that an intense communion between author and viewer can be achieved?"

Quotes about Dubreuil

"Some say he is a fanatic, an eccentric; others insist that he is one of the rare photographers who have ideas that will last. Such a contradiction should not surprise us; it has always been associated with those whose names have become famous in literature and the arts ... Yes, Pierre Dubreuil is the subject of violent discussions in our country. He knows this better than anyone; it does not discourage him ... Let time do her work ... Where necessary time honors those stars that are too modest or unknown and drowns the glorious, arrogant ephemera in shadow and oblivion" - Cyrille Ménard

"What makes his pictures so outstanding can be summed up in a few words ... Dubreuil's pictures are 'seen,' seen through the eyes of an artist." - Fritz Loescher

"To the present-day photographer, the name of Pierre Dubreuil ... stands for one of the extremists of photography ... he is one of the three to whose influence and example the development of the 'New Photography' is to be traced, the others being Malcolm Arbutnot in England and Paul Strand in America." - J. Dudley Johnston