Ritual , Secrecy , and Civil Society
最古老的共济会相片 ? 一张吸引人的共济会银版 相片
摘要
共济会希望成为一个稍微停留在时间边缘的传统组织 。 不 过 , 它也会受生活条件演变和技术演变的影响 。 因此 , 在 19 世纪 , 即使保持 “ 神秘 ”, 但它也将接触摄影这一新的变革性 技术 。 最古老的共济会相片是什么 ? 也许应在法国这一摄影 术发源地去寻找它 。 因此 , 巴黎的共济会博物馆 ( Museum of Freemasonry ) 近期获得了一张追溯到 1850 年的惊人相片 , 这张相片代表了一名共济会会员和他的装饰物 … 一个细节 是 , 这名共济会会员已经去世 , 并且相片是在他的临终床上 拍摄的 。 这张相片因此还描述了影响共济会各会所的新哥特 式浪漫主义 。
关键词 : 共济会摄影 , 共济会银版相片
Photography was long regarded as a mere technical device . However , for some thirty years , it has fully entered the terrain of cultural heritage , and its history has been documented in numerous works . Nevertheless , up to now , the field of freemasonry has been left untouched . Even though the collections , whether private or in museums , contain some “ masonic ” photos — mainly of Brethren in their regalia — those have neither attracted the attention of researchers nor produced specific studies . For that matter , the relation of freemasons to photography varies according to their countries British and American Masons had their pictures taken on a wide scale at the end of the 19 th and in the first part of the 20 th centuries . In France , masonic photos seem to be rather scarce . Let us begin our approach of masonic photography
28 with a particularly early and singular item . A few months ago , a specialist presented the Museum of Freemasonry with a most curious daguerreotype ; it shows a slightly morbid scene : a freemason on his death-bed , wearing his apron and a collar of Rose-Croix .
Nicéphore Niepce invented photography in the 1820s . It rests on the use of a “ camera obscura ” ( dark chamber ), long since familiar to draughtsmen wanting to capture a scene . One replaces the glass pane at the back by a plate covered with some light-sensitive material . The whole of Niepce ’ s research bore on the making of such material . The other problem consisted in stopping the chemical reaction at a given time in order to “ fix ” the picture . In 1827 , Niepce finally managed to take a permanently stable picture : a view