Pierre Trémaux was a French architect, Orientalist photographer, and author of numerous scientific and ethnographic publications.
Life and career
Very little is known about Pierre Trémaux's life. He was born in Charrecey, France into a family of modest means. He was the son of Jean-Marie Trémaux, a farmer and Claudine Renaudin and had at least two sisters. Details of his final years are very sketchy and details of death and final resting place are unknown. Trémaux distinguished himself in many fields. He entered the École des Beaux-Arts in 1840 and received the second Prix de Rome in Architecture in 1845. As a trained architect, he worked at the Schneider establishments in Le Creusot. He was interested in urbanism, the breakthrough of the Suez Canal. A naturalist, he traveled to Algeria, Tunisia, Upper Egypt, Eastern Sudan and Ethiopia in 1847-1848, where he made many drawings and became one of the first to produce photographic images of the region. From Alexandria, he went up the Nile to Nubia. In 1853-1854, he undertook a second photographic trip to Libya, Egypt, Asia Minor, Tunisia, Syria and Greece. He returned from these trips with many illustrations and photographic images, some of the first photographs ever made of the region and its people.
Work
Photography
Relatively few of his photographs have survived, and of the few that exist, the condition is very poor yet these reveal that he was not particularly talented as a photographer. However, his published works, the Voyagesseries, were the first books on Egypt, Palestine and other Middle Eastern locations to use photographic illustrations.
Between 1852 and 1868, Trémaux produced a number of distinct groups of photographic plates to accompany texts on the geography, architecture, and people of African and Anatolian regions. Produced with the support of French government, these high quality publications, combined an array of graphic techniques in ways that had not previously been attempted. The images combine salted paper prints, engravings, tinted and colour lithographs and photolithographs. Articles
"Notice d’un voyage sur le cours du Nil et dans des parties inconnues du Soudan, chez les nègres Bertha, du Darfok et du Dar-Gourum," Bulletin de laSociété de Géographie, 1849, sèr., 12 pp 67-72
"Notes sur la localité ou sont situées les principales mines d’or du Soudan oriental, et observations critiques sur le récit du Colonel Kovalevski relatif à cette même contrée." Bulletin de la Société de Géographie, 1850, sér. 13
"Quelques détails sur les prétendus hommes à queue," Bulletin de la Société de Géographie, 1855, 4e sér., 9, p. 139-148
"Épisode d’un voyage au Soudan oriental et remarques sur l’esclavage," Bulletin de la Société de Géographie, 1856, 4e sér., 11, p. 153-164
"Remarques sur l’Afrique centrale et orientale," Bulletin de la Société de Géographie, 1862, 5e sér., 3, p. 69-86 et 147-165
Books
Parallèle des édifices anciens et modernes du continent africain, illustré de 82 planches et une carte de l'Afrique Centrale, 1858
Dessinés et relevés de 1847 à 1854 dans l'Algerie, les régences de Tunis et de Tripoli, l'Égypte, la Nubie, les déserts, l'île de Méroé, le Sennar, le Fa-Zogle, etc.
Exploration archéologique en Asie mineure, illustré de 92 planches, 1864
Voyage en Éthiopie, au Soudan Oriental et dans la Nigritie, atlas illustré de 61 planches, Hachette, 1852
Voyage en Éthiopie, au Soudan Oriental et dans la Nigritie, Vol 1: Égypte et Éthiopie, textes de l'Atlas, Hachette, 1862
Voyage en Éthiopie, au Soudan Oriental et dans la Nigritie, Vol. 2: Le Soudan, textes de l'Atlas, Hachette, 1862.
Origine et transformations de l'homme et des autres êtres, Hachette, 1865
Principe universel de la vie, de tout mouvement et de l'état de la matière, Chez l'auteur, 1868, 1874, 1876
Origine des espèces et de l'homme avec les causes de fixité et de transformation et principe universel du mouvement et de la vie ou loi des transmissions de force, 1898
