Gervais-Courtellemont, Jules (1863-1931), French traveller, publisher, lecturer and photographer. During an adolescence spent in Algeria he developed a passion for the pre-colonial Orient that was to dominate his life, and in 1894 converted to Islam prior to making a pilgrimage to Mecca. Having taken up photography in 1877, he used it to illustrate both the books he published by himself and other authors, and, as lantern-slides, his popular lectures on journeys to the Balkans, China, Japan and the Middle East. In 1907 he adopted and soon completely mastered the Lumières' new autochrome process; particularly memorable are his images of Constantinople (Istanbul), Palestine, Egypt and, in 1914, the Marne battlefields. In 1923-5 he wrote a three-volume work, La Civilisation - Histoire sociale de l'humanité, illustrated with his photographs. He was a lifelong friend of the novelist, Orientalist and photographer Pierre Loti. Over 5.5 thousand of Gervais-Courtellemont's autochromes survive in various collections.
Bibliography
- De Pastre, B., and Devos, E. (eds.), Les couleurs du voyage. L'oeuvre photographique de Jules Gervais-Courtellemont (2002)
