Printed: 2024-04-27
Musée Belge des Photographies Documentaires
Identity
Category
Collective
Alternative name or descriptor
- Institut International de Photographie [documentaire]<05-21>
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Status
- Group
Details
Life dates
Activity
1901 * - 1913 Bruxelles - Schaerbeek, Chaussée de Haecht, 164 (headquarters)
Offshoot of the "Photo-Club de Belgique", this museum was created as a focus for iconographic documentation and study on the model of the "Musée des Photographies Documentaires" in Paris, directed by Léon Vidal. Committee consisted of eight members, the president of which was Ernest de Potter; secretary: Cellard. In 1905, the Museum took the name "Institut international de Photographie" or "Institut international de Photographie documentaire" and became a department of the "Institut international de Bibliographie" directed by lawyer and internationalist Paul Otlet (1868 - 1944), thereby participating in or even subsumed by the latter's utopian project for universal knowledge. It then operated from the Institute’s office in Brussels, Rue du Musée, 1. The purpose of its "Répertoire iconophotographique universel" was described as being "to collect, from day to day and in photography, the image [ie, representations] of human activity in all its forms" (Indicateur de la photographie, Paris, A. Lahure, 1905, p. 398).
In 1901 a member of the "Photo-Club de Belgique" donated 20 000 items. The "Bulletin du Photo-Club de Belgique" announced shortly afterwards that the museum possessed 23 000 items. The "Institut International de Photographie" published a trial issue of "Bibliographica Photographica" in 1906 (SALU, Luc. "Les périodiques consacrés à la photographie" in Pour une histoire de la photographie en Belgique, Charleroi, 1993, p. 37). The "Institut international de Photographie" was disolved in 1921 and its holdings transferred to the successor organisation of the "Institut international de Bibliographie". These collections are now housed in the Mundaneum museum in Mons.
Offshoot of the "Photo-Club de Belgique", this museum was created as a focus for iconographic documentation and study on the model of the "Musée des Photographies Documentaires" in Paris, directed by Léon Vidal. Committee consisted of eight members, the president of which was Ernest de Potter; secretary: Cellard. In 1905, the Museum took the name "Institut international de Photographie" or "Institut international de Photographie documentaire" and became a department of the "Institut international de Bibliographie" directed by lawyer and internationalist Paul Otlet (1868 - 1944), thereby participating in or even subsumed by the latter's utopian project for universal knowledge. It then operated from the Institute’s office in Brussels, Rue du Musée, 1. The purpose of its "Répertoire iconophotographique universel" was described as being "to collect, from day to day and in photography, the image [ie, representations] of human activity in all its forms" (Indicateur de la photographie, Paris, A. Lahure, 1905, p. 398).
In 1901 a member of the "Photo-Club de Belgique" donated 20 000 items. The "Bulletin du Photo-Club de Belgique" announced shortly afterwards that the museum possessed 23 000 items. The "Institut International de Photographie" published a trial issue of "Bibliographica Photographica" in 1906 (SALU, Luc. "Les périodiques consacrés à la photographie" in Pour une histoire de la photographie en Belgique, Charleroi, 1993, p. 37). The "Institut international de Photographie" was disolved in 1921 and its holdings transferred to the successor organisation of the "Institut international de Bibliographie". These collections are now housed in the Mundaneum museum in Mons.
Locations
1901 * - 1913 Bruxelles - Schaerbeek, Chaussée de Haecht, 164 (headquarters)
Exhibitions
Brussels, 1906 ("Institut International de Photographie - Section Iconographique de l'Institut International de Belgique" [sic, for Bibliographie]", Brussels, Rue du Musée, 1).
Genres / subject matter
Techniques
Bibliography/Webography
CORNILLE, Raphaèle, "L’Institut International de Photographie et la naissance des collections iconographiques du Mundaneum", Bulletin de l'Association belge d'Histoire contemporaine, 2010, vol. 22, no. 3.
Context
Affiliations
Management
Record source
DIRECTORY_1997#3184
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation/revision
SFJ revised 14.2.2018, 19.4.2018 & 8.3.2019; SFJ revised 31.5.2020 & 21.1.2021 based on information supplied by M. Demaeght; SFJ revised 31.3.2021 & 17.10.2023