Fierlants, Edmond (1819-69), Belgian photographer and photographic publisher. Born in Brussels into a prominent family of lawyers, Fierlants learned photography in Paris with Hippolyte Bayard. Sole Belgian founder member of the Société Française de Photographie in 1854, he gained a reputation as a skilful experimenter with the Taupenot dry-plate process. The Belgian state, created as recently as 1830, was in search of a national identity, one strand of which was a cultural heritage rich in art and architecture. This heritage needed its spokesmen and popularizers, and Fierlants conceived it as his mission to undertake this task within his chosen medium. Armed with favourable reviews and the goodwill of the Belgian government, Fierlants returned to Brussels in 1858 and received successive commissions to record the historic art and architecture of Bruges (1858), Antwerp (1860), Brussels (1862-4). and Louvain (1865). Fierlants founded the Société Belge de Photographie in 1862. Granted a royal warrant in 1863, this body published a stock catalogue in 1865 numbering 1, 400 items. But by now, in this niche market, publicly funded commissions had dried up. In 1867, divorced and in debt, Fierlants opened a branch studio for portraiture in Brussels. It did not prosper, Fierlants was forced to relinquish control of his company and died a ruined man.
— Steven F. Joseph
Bibliography
- Joseph, S. F., and Schwilden, T., Edmond Fierlants (1819- 1869): photographies d'art et d'architecture (1988)
