Pierre Brochet, The Conciergerie In Paris, 1989

Pierre Brochet (1922-2016)
La Conciergerie, 1989
Heliogravure by Pierre Brochet bearing his dry stamp
Image: 15.5 x 20 cm; Sheet: 38.5 x 29.5 cm
Provenance: workshop of Pierre Brochet
Related work: a variant of this photograph at the Carnavalet museum in Paris

Pierre Brochet, born December 10, 1922 in Auxerre, spent his childhood in the family property, surrounded by five brothers and sisters. He comes from a wealthy family whose father is a painter and playwright. His brother François is also a famous sculptor from Auxerre. After the baccalaureate, his steps lead him to the family nursery, in Vitry near Paris, where his future as a landscape gardener will take shape. Activity that he carried out together with the practice of photography, his great passion from 1937. , the quality of the papers not being what it used to be. Everyone strives to overcome these drawbacks by looking for other ways, which old literature or course manuals could offer to helpless practitioners: carbon, platinum, greasy inks, gum bichromate, toning, pinhole. The name of Pierre Brochet often appears in the discussions of specialists who wish to approach him to question him on these abandoned processes of which he seems to hold all the keys. In 1981, a retrospective exhibition was organized at the Nicéphore Niépce museum in Chalon-sur-Saône. The following year, Brochet led a charcoal printing course. The resurrection of old processes has just started. In 1983, he created his heliographic engraving workshop and produced a portfolio of ten engraved plates from the original prints by Charles Nègre. The Association for Old Photography (APA) was born naturally from this favorable situation. Brochet, as a French specialist in old photographic processes (bichromate gum, charcoal or platinum printing), is the founder. Holding his troops in hand, he gives through his many courses the taste and the means to revive these little-known techniques. Pierre Brochet's preference goes to heliographic engraving where he is an authority. In addition to his personal images, he knows how to put his talent at the service of the greatest photographers (Salgado, Weiss, Dieuzaide, Nègre, Atget), enhancing their works by these prints carried by the most beautiful art papers, guaranteeing an image almost palpable, with striking relief, eternal by the quality of the pigments it contains. “In original engraving or photographic aquatint engraving on copper, manual wiping and crushing by the rollers of the press cause a modification of the plates, and, consequently, of the proofs. Some numbers will be preferred over others by amateurs. » Brochet produces for the APA a portfolio published in seventy copies: Appel aux sources, a polemical plea to the aid of little-known photographic processes, and comprising thirty photogravure prints executed in his studio, signed by the authors. In 2004, he published with Béatrice Seguin: Mariette in Egypt or the metamorphosis of ruins.

Pierre Brochet in public collections
 

Musée Carnavalet, Paris

Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris

Centre Pompidou, Paris

Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris

Musée Rodin, Paris

La Maison de Monet, Giverny

Musée Nicéphore Niepce, Chalon-sur-Saône

Photo Elysée - Musée cantonal pour la photographie, Lausanne

Musée français de la photographie, Bièvres

Galerie Le Château d'Eau, Toulouse

Centre national de la photographie, Paris

Ecole nationale supérieure de photographie, Arles

Centre photographique d'Ile de France

Mission du Patrimoine, Paris

Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière, Saint-Mandé

Villes de Montpellier, Pithiviers, Saint Florentin, Grasse