Mainly
represented through the work of :
Etienne
Houvet (1869-1949) who did from 1920 through 1940,
photograph the entire cathedral, piece by piece. It
is an enormous work representing thousand of negative plates of
various formats on a substrate of silver-bromide gelatin. Taking
pictures of the same subject under various angles he tried to get
the most beautiful expression and the best light and shadow games to
put the volumes in perspective.
It's a love
story between a photograph and "his" monument, thereby
constituting a remarkable artistic and iconographic document of the
cathedral of Chartres. We
do have some positives photograph by Etienne Houvet.
Yves
Delaporte (1879-1979), diocesan archivist, is work is mainly
made of pictures of stain glass windows of the cathedral laid down
during the first World War. This has been an exceptional opportunity
to take pictures in details. In
his collection, several negatives representing manuscripts from the
Town Library, whose original have been destroyed by an incendiary
bomb during the last World War.
It is also
necessary to mention thousands of slides and photographs about
Chartres and its surroundings as well as portraits witnesses of the
contemporary life of the city.
Mgr
Roger Michon, Bishop of Chartres (1955-1978) has been an
unexpected photograph of the cathedral. He took pictures of the
cathedral during his free time.
The
cathedral has been the subject of various studies by photographs
from all over the world since the beginning of the photography.
