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

e found in the pictures of amateur photographer
Arnold Vander Haeghen who worked at the turn of
the century.
‘UN VIRTUOSE DE
LA PLAQUE SENSIBLE’:
photographic technique
Storm Calle — Bruno Notteboom
On a technical level Edmond Sacré showed a strong
sense of experiment and perfection. The photographer
mostly used glass negatives which allowed
him to work relatively quickly and be mobile. In the
composition of the image and the finishing of the
negatives he left little to chance, however. When
printing he applied photomechanical processes
(albumen print, collotype and silver gelatin) as well
as pigment printing (gum bichromate and carbon
printing). He tended to prefer the photomechanical
processes for city views, architecture and interiors,
whereas he favoured pigment printing for artistic
work. Pigment prints, after all, produced a softer
image with more refined shades of grey. From various
contributions to the journal of the Association
belge de photographie we learn that experimenting
with photographic techniques was probably as important
to him as pursuing art. Depending on the
subject and the location, Sacré worked with different
types of camera: bellows cameras (including
travel and studio cameras) as well as cameras without
bellows (for visiting and cabinet card portraits).
And, finally, Sacré lavished a lot of attention on the
presentation of the photo by creatively applying
signatures or decorative frames.
A CITY STRADDLING
TWO WORLDS
Birgit Cleppe
This contribution not only presents a brief survey
of the ambitious redevelopment plans and largescale
infrastructure projects in and around the city,
but also links them to an increasing awareness that
the construction of memory and the preservation
of Ghent’s historic heritage were crucial. During
Sacré’s lifetime, Ghent was after all an ambiguous
city. On the one hand it frantically rushed ahead,
but at the same time constantly looked back. Increasingly
overwhelmed by a cluttered expanse of
large-scale and more modest construction projects
as well as by a host of infrastructure renovation
works, an influential intellectual elite had become
ever more concerned about Ghent’s historic heritage.
Most of these intellectuals were members of, or
closely associated with, the Stedelijke Commissie
der Monumenten en Stadsgezichten, including Sacré
who was frequently commissioned by it as a photographer.
The tension between an unbridled belief in
progress and the obsessive desire to reconstruct
the historic heritage reached its peak during the
1913 World Fair, and led to drastic changes in the
Ghent Sacré knew. Whereas the Commissie initially
[252]
made various efforts to protect traces of Ghent’s
history against the invasion of modernism,
those very traces were more and more frequently
divorced from their context and modernism
sneaked into the historic urban landscape like
a Trojan horse during the last years of his life.
EDMOND SACRÉ,
THE MAN WHO
PHOTOGRAPHED GHENT
Dirk Lauwaert
In this text curator Dirk Lauwaert shares his observations
on the ‘sparkling production’ of Sacré whom
he considers the (ultimate) photographer of the city
of Ghent of his time. Sacré was more than anything
a commercial photographer, a tradesman, in his
portraits — in which he created a flattering image
like a barber does — as much as in his city views.
Sacré, however, worked within a long tradition of
city representation. Rather than official institutions,
it was the city itself, its historical monuments, that
made imperative demands — those particular images
and only those, that particular angle and only
that one. Sacré produced his images following an
old format that had been established in the period
when engraving was at its height. At the same time,
the city as it changed also opened up new viewpoints
and perspectives. The 1913 World Fair was a decisive
moment for the arrangement of the historical
city centre and the images of the city that would
circulate across the globe. Sacré witnessed the
changes and fashioned the ultimate image that
would sum up the city: the three towers seen from
St Michael’s Bridge (Sint-Michielsbrug). Photography
was an important instrument in the construction
of a historic awareness, true or false. Sacré, however,
portrayed more than simply Ghent’s bourgeoisie
and its monuments. He depicted ‘ordinary’
architecture, old houses that were becoming increasingly
rare in the townscape, as well as the
outskirts, the port and city life. He influenced the
image of the city using the tools of a photographer:
camera angles, the processing of the negatives,
framing. He was a photographer who was influenced
by his clients and by the time in which he lived
but, working as a photographer in the city for over
forty years, he also ended up influencing it himself.
This text reveals the subtlety and complexity of
their interaction.
THE ‘SPEAKING STONES’
OF ST BAVO’S ABBEY
Maarten Delbeke
By the end of the nineteenth century, a range of different
but related actors had turned their attention
to the St. Bavo’s Abbey in Ghent. Its ruins had
been preserved under the impetus of Auguste van
Lokeren thanks to one of the earliest conservation
campaigns. Its picturesque character had inspired
many artists and early photographers and attracted