Société Française de Photographie (SFP). In 1854 the SFP's founding group (O. Aguado, Hippolyte Bayard, E. Durieu, J.-B. Gros, Gustave Le Gray, H.-V. Régnault, et al.) left the Société Héliographique, a body that was probably too loose, and disintegrated soon after its creation in 1851. Mindful of this failure, the SFP adopted a firm structure, modelled on the Academy of Sciences, including an established venue, regular sessions, commissioned papers, and a bulletin. For the rest of the 19th century it committed itself to the promotion of photography through regular exhibitions, technical competitions, training courses, and lectures. It functioned as both an academy and a repository of photography. Demonstration sessions were usually followed by the deposit of specimens in the SFP's archive, which was also constantly enriched by members' donations. In the 20th century the society has been active primarily in the historical and preservation field. Today it is a research centre, publishing the Études photographiques and making available its rich collections of equipment and images (10, 000 prints and 50, 000 negatives, including 5, 000 autochromes) and its library (8, 000 books and over 650 periodicals).
— Clément Chéroux
Bibliography
- Poivert, M., ‘La SFP rejoint la BnF’,
Revue de la Bibliothèque Nationale de France ,2 (1994)
