Henri Le Secq was born to Auguste-Jean and Anne-Louise (Tournaire) Le Secq on August 18, 1818 in Paris, France. His father was a respected civil servant who later served as mayor of Paris's ninth arrondissement (currently the fourth arrondissement). His artistic inclinations began during childhood, and he found inspiration in the Romantic writings of Victor Hugo. While still a teenager, he became a student of sculptor Jean-Jacques "James" Pradier, and five years later he was studying with historical painter Paul Delaroche. By 1842, his paintings were being exhibited at the Salon de Paris.

Mr. Le Secq became acquainted with painter Charles Negre, with whom he studied photography under the tutelage of photographic pioneer Gustave Le Gray. In 1848, he married Marguerite-Fanely Palais, and along with Mr. Negre began experimenting with William Henry Fox Talbot's calotypes. He continued utilizing Mr. Le Gray's waxed paper negatives long after his contemporaries switched to glass negatives because he preferred the luminous qualities of paper. Mr. Le Secq joined other colleagues including Mr. Negre and Mr. Le Gray in the founding of France's first photographic organization, the Societe heliographique, in 1851. By this time, Mr. Le Secq was regarded as one of the industry's finest architectural photographers, which led to his involvement with the Mission Heliographique. Established by the Commission des Monuments Historiques, the Mission conducted a photographic survey designed at preserving France's medieval architecture that historians believed was being threatened by the modernist renovations of Baron Haussmann and Jean-Jacques Berger. During his association with the Mission, Mr. Le Secq photographed several medieval religious buildings and monuments throughout Champagne, Alsace, and Lorraine. Afterwards, he was commissioned to compile a photographic record of church sculptures throughout Paris, Reims (sometimes spelled Rheims), Chartres, Amiens, and Strasbourg. Several of these images were used by local print publishers to produce lithographs. One of his most famous photographs is "Flying Buttresses, Reims Cathedral" (1852), which required a dangerous climb to provide a breathtaking perspective of the impressive arches. That same year, Mr. Le Secq shifted his specialty to landscape photography, which he began by photographing the forests and stone quarries near Montmirail. In his landscapes, he incorporated various Impressionist painting techniques through long exposures and contrasts of light and shadow.

By the mid 1850s, Mr. Le Secq's photographic career was waning due largely to his steadfast refusal to embrace glass negatives. In later years, however, he relented by reprinting some of his waxed paper negatives. He returned to his first love, painting, and several of his works were featured at the Salon. He later published a pamphlet on Salon reforms entitled, "Les Artistes, les Expositions, le Jury." After losing his wife and daughter in 1862, Mr. Le Secq sold collections of paintings and drawings, and began collecting forged iron pieces. Sixty-four-year-old Henri Le Secq died in his beloved Paris on December 26, 1882, leaving behind a fascinating array of photographic images that document a bygone architectural era.




Ref:
1981 After Daguerre: Masterworks of French Photography (1848–1900) from the Bibliotheque Nationale (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art), p. 22.

1996 The City of Collective Memory by M. Christine Boyer (Cambrdige, MA: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press), p. 240.

2007 Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography, Vol. I (New York: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group LLC), pp. 837-839.

2009 The Gargoyles of Notre-Dame: Medievalism and the Monsters of Modernity by Michael Camille (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), p. 226.

2000 Gustave Le Gray, 1820-1884 by Sylvie Aubenas (Los Angeles: Getty Publications), p. 349.

2011 In Photos: Remembering French Photographer Henri Le Secq (URL: http://www.photography-news.com/2011/08/in-photos-remembering-french.html).

2015 Tour de Rois a Rheims (Tower of the Kings at Rheims Cathedral): J. Paul Getty Trust (URL: http://www.getty.edu/museum/media/images/web/download/04529201.jpg).

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