Behind the Scenes

French photographer Robert Demachy (1859–1936) was a pioneer and master of pictorial photography. He revived the gum-bichromate printing process that enables a photographer to add pigments to generate color and a painterly surface on photographs. Pictorialism was a response to artistic criticism that photography was only a record of reality and nothing more. To promote the medium, Demachy added etch marks during the intermediate stages of development, which revealed his intervention in the printmaking stage of the process of photography. Pictorialism gradually transformed into an international movement, raising the status of photography to fine art.

Demachy began photography as a hobby. He began experimenting in the 1870s, and by the '90s, he was a prominent figure among French photographers. He worked across genres, including portraits, landscapes, nudes, and dancers. His photographs of ballet dancers drew positive responses during an exhibition at the London Photographic Salon in 1900.

Demachy’s interest in photography as an Impressionist art form  is evident in the Dorsky’s photogravure print from his series “Behind the Scenes” (1906), and his subject matter parallels painter and photographer Edgar Degas. Ballet dancers were among both artists’ favorite subjects. Demachy masterfully captured a contemplative dancer gazing downward. He used soft-focus lenses to blur and soften the image to provide a painterly tone, much like brushwork. The darker color blends against the white highlights, resembling charcoal smudges on paper. The rubbing effect adds drama, as does the asymmetrical viewpoint. He then gently smoothed out the background details to accentuate the grace and delicacy of the ballet dancer.