[Construction Site]

Louis Lafon

1880s · Albumen silver print from glass negative · Photographs

The urbanization projects of nineteenth-century France called on photography to record not only the ornamental details of a building’s exterior but also the progression of its construction. Lafon mastered this type of industrial imagery, a pursuit for which he was awarded a medal at the 1874 exhibition of the Société française de photographie. This photograph succinctly captures the construction of a building that integrated modern techniques of iron and steel-frame construction with traditional materials like brick masonry. In addition to showing the progress of construction, the image offers a striking tableau of modern labor. Tradesmen in dark clothing perch atop the razor-thin beams and cut dramatic silhouettes against the sky, while unskilled laborers cloaked in loose white smocks fidget and sway almost irreverently along wooden scaffolding, indicating the seconds-long exposure of Lafon’s large wet-plate camera. Left of center, in a tailored jacket and short-brimmed hat, an onsite engineer appears to handle a rolled-up drafting sheet that, like Lafon’s photograph, would reveal the building’s path from initial scheme to final shape.

Artist

Louis Lafon

Date

1880s

Medium

Albumen silver print from glass negative

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Purchase, Alfred Stieglitz Society Gifts, 2008