Edmond Sacré Portret van een stad - Gent Cultuurstad vzw ...

Edmond Sacré was one of the most prominent and
productive photographers of Belle Epoque Ghent.
He produced a voluminous and highly diversified
body of work. This was done either on commission
(as a professional photographer) or independently
(as an artistic photographer).
In this catalogue of the exhibition Edmond Sacré,
Portrait of a City, the visual section follows the
thematic layout of the exhibition chosen by curator
Dirk Lauwaert. It is preceded by a text section in
which a number of aspects of Sacré’s imagery are
discussed within the framework of the city and
society of the era. Four brief texts sketch the context
in which Sacré worked: how Ghent was photo-
A CONCISE
BIOGRAPHY
Wout de Vuyst
From his adolescence onwards Edmond Sacré (born
Ghent 20 August 1851) showed a passionate interest
in photography, taking courses on it from Gustaaf
De Vylder at the local Industrial School and being
present at Désiré van Monckhoven’s experiments.
Although he studied architecture at the Ghent
Academy, he nevertheless decided to become a professional
photographer and practised the profession
from 1874 onwards. His younger brothers Achille
Sacré-Smits (1857-1897) and Charles Sacré (1859-?)
would later follow his example, establishing themselves
as professional photographers in their turn.
Little is known about the first years of his career.
In 1877 Sacré started his own business in the Twaalfkamerenstraat.
1879 saw his marriage to Léonie/
Leonia Coleta Ghyselinck (1856-1928), with whom
he had four daughters: Adelaïde Coralie (1878-1966),
Rachel Caroline (1880-1956), Martha Julie (1882-
1951) and Mariette Josephina (1885-1885).
Apart from his professional practice, Sacré
was an active member of various photographic
clubs and societies. He often participated in photo
exhibitions at home and abroad and won several
prizes. The breadth of his network clearly shows in
his clientele, extending as it did from monasteries
to the socialist cooperative ‘Vooruit’.
From 1892 until his death Sacré lived in the
house on the corner of Kalandestraat — Korte
Kruisstraat. During that period he expanded his
practice from ‘Photographe-Dessinateur’ to ‘Photographe-Éditeur’,
editing and publishing a number
of books and brochures. His daughters — photographer
Adelaïde and accountant Martha — assisted
him in the business.
In the preparatory phase running up to the 1913
World Fair, his photos of Ghent monuments and
SUMMARIES
INTRODUCTION
Bruno Notteboom
[251]
graphed before he came on the scene, his life and
work, his photographic technique and Ghent’s
urban development during the period. These are
followed by four essays which examine the images
themselves and the visual culture of which they
form a part. The authors explore the role of
the photographer and of commissioning, the use
of series and the publications in which Sacré’s
images were included as well as the era’s awareness
of history and modernity.
Edmond Sacré, Portrait of a City is a joint
initiative of STAM, Efemera, the Architecture
and Urban Development Department of the
University of Ghent and Ghent City Archive.
art treasures were used in tourist promotion campaigns.
This in fact continued for several decades
and set the seal on the image of the city.
After his death in 1921, his business was carried
on by his daughters and, from 1948 onwards, by
photographer Jozef Van Waesberghe. All of them
continued to work with Sacré’s negatives.
GHENT AND URBAN
PHOTOGRAPHY OF THE
NINETEENTH CENTURY
Steven Jacobs
This essay discusses nineteenth-century photographic
representations of Ghent, which had also
been the subject of one of Daguerre’s dioramas.
Daguerreotypists photographed the city as early
as October 1839 and in the following decades prominent
British and French photographers such as
John Muir Wood, the Bisson brothers and Adolphe
Braun depicted the city in the context of a developing
tourist industry, which is inherently linked to
the industrial production of images. Fascinated
by the picturesque chaos of the medieval city and
its pictorial effects or by the architectural details
of the monuments, these men provide us in their
photographs with valuable information on a city
prior to the major urban transformations it was
to undergo in the late nineteenth century.
Ghent was also extensively recorded by Belgian
photographers. A series of views of the medieval
centre was commissioned by the Société royale belge
de photographie in the early 1870s and local photographers
such as Verhaeghe De Naeyer, François
Donny and Charles D’Hoy produced pictures of
Ghent’s urban spaces. D’Hoy also made a series
of fascinating stereoscopic views, which are distinguished
by a snapshot-like quality evoking the
hectic life of the street — an approach that can also