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photographs in a novel? " Debate around Bruges la Morte.

Get an idea of the novel: Amours and landscapes reflect

Rodenbach use with Bruges-la-Morte (1892) an unusual process and that interfere much. The question arises, in effect: can we legitimately illustrate a literary work with the photos? Would this not threaten the establishment, restrict the imagination of the reader? Many at the time, think.

• photography as an enemy of the dream .

be noted first that the problem only photographic illustration, drawing with a long history of law cited in works of literature. But a new process brings new questions. Occurs when a distinction between traditional illustration, which is an art, photography and illustration, designed as a pure reproduction of reality. Can be attributed the distinction to which Baudelaire, in a polemical article written at the Salon of 1859 ( The modern public and photography ) between the respective fields that must occupy photography and pictorial art. Thus he writes, between two invective:

"If allowed to photography to supplement art in some of its functions, it will soon have supplanted or corrupted entirely, thanks to 'natural alliance that found in the stupidity of the multitude. It must therefore return to his real duty, which is to be the servant Science and Arts , but the very humble servant, as the printing and shorthand which have neither created nor supplemented literature . it enriches the album quickly and makes the traveler in his eyes that lacks the precision to his memory, she decorates the library of the naturalist, exaggerates the microscopic animals, even some information strengthens the hypothesis of astronomer, it is finally the secretary and the guard who noted in his profession needs an absolute factual accuracy, so far nothing better. [...] But if it is allowed to encroach on the domain of the impalpable and the imaginary, upon anything that is only because man adds to his soul, then woe to us! " (emphasis added)

This is good for him to distinguish between" art " and" industry. "According to Baudelaire, the photograph does is not art because it applies only to the strict reproduction of reality, and if it becomes as popular is because of a perversion of taste. No progress in the arts should therefore fall within this new technique and being constantly improved. This view, thrust in 1859, has continued to find echoes in the late nineteenth century and continue to walk among the opponents of the photograph.

• But then ... What relationship between book and photograph?

everyone will not agree with the ideas of Baudelaire. And flourish in the 1880s, several publications that combine text with images. One well-known examples being the Five Ladies of the Kasbah Pierre Loti, illustrated by Gervais Courtelle " in collotype from photographs taken direct to Algiers. " However, while this kind of process is more than a grunt, the authors do not seem in any way consider the purely aesthetic possibilities of photography. And if the practice is becoming more and more, photography fails to win the good graces of literary circles, often despised, regarded as belonging to popular taste or simple example of tourist guide. One example is the reaction of John Reibrach's investigation Mercure de France (1) " Is this novel? The question then does not matter: the design will always pretty good for public taste. "

But when it comes to literary, protests mount. Include three opponents marked the addition of photographs to enhance a literary text. There again Ralph, English critic . According to him, "At the call of novel illustrated by the photograph, only the bad writer will respond. " There are still Zola " does not believe in the right job or the effective result of this process. It will fall immediately in the nude. "In the same vein, Octave Uzanne wrote:" The illustration will struggle against his enemy hidden the photography, and imaging and direct from nature, using chemical processes. We will attempt a big effort to acclimate in the modern book the exact determination of people and things, but without success, hopefully. "
The favorable responses are more interesting: very few of them show full confidence in the photographic art and nearly all emit many nuances and objections. The photograph in a novel or why not, but what models to choose, how give an air of reality to scenes put, if one intends to represent the characters? Why not, but only in the case of travelogues written or realistic. Why not, but what it will pose technical problems! Multiple questions are raised no one can give a satisfactory answer. Finally, although many authors claim to support the emergence of photographs in the text, most of the judging process according to various criteria (relevance of the illustration, type of work, audience). The authors also include refractory to any type of image ... I can not as such fail to mention the famous Mallarme: "I am for - no illustrations, all evoked a book to happen in the reader's mind: but if you replace the photograph, that n ' are you entitled to cinematography, which will replace the course, images and texts, maint volume, preferably. " By letting you ponder the respective places that we give to the film and literature today.

• Bruges-la-Morte and his silences.

In this context, the approach of Rodenbach has something innovative. In a book addressed to an educated public ( Bruges-la-Morte is a symbolist novel), he put the number of shots which he justifies the presence in a Warning (2) . What reactions, faced with this audacious attempt? Symptomatically, a lot of silence: many critics do not mention any illustrations, however difficult that pass unnoticed (two to three photographs per chapter). Others, like Charles Merki, openly criticize the process, seen as a "rescue a little childish . He wrote in the Mercure de France " what shocks me definitely in this book comes from the illustration, and the faux prints Bruges [...] seem rather grow apart, they give a good printing dead city, but that stands next to our mind, runs parallel to the text, adds nothing, remains different. "

Hard to understand, mixing realistic photographs and poetic text, the work of Rodenbach will repeatedly amputated his set of photographs. Even in modern editions, we hesitate to withdraw or text images, or to amputate or eliminate the Warning which emphasizes their importance. One of the benefits of the work is yet to have inaugurated the genre of narrative-picture, where text and Inserts weave new networks of meaning and enrich the interpretation. Allusions, and even negative criticism silences about the specificity of the work reflect a discomfort with this new medium of photography, which will Yet a growing role in our daily lives.

And in your eyes, photography (and its suite of new mediums) she is still a threat to art?

Nibelheim.

~ * ~

(Information collected in the critical apparatus of Bruges-la-Morte
Editing Jean-Pierre Bertrand and Daniel Grojnowski, GF.)

Notes:
1. In January 1898, the Mercure de France conducts an investigation, calling different artists to comment on the photographic illustration for novels.
2. Reminder of Warning: " It is important, since these sets of Bruges together with adventures, reproduced here as [...] so that those who read us are also affected by the presence and influence City, feel the contagion of the best waters nearby, in turn feel the shadow of the towers lying on the text. "