Ernest & Henri Roger.
Brothers, inventors, photographers
Everything was subject to being photographed by these enlightened enthusiasts. A selection of 55 contemporary prints in a limited edition of 30 copies.
Henri Roger (1869-1946) and his elder brother Ernest (1864-1943) were brilliant minds who left their mark on both science and photography. They practiced collodion photography together from an early age, a first experience that heralded many others.
After completing his scientific studies, Ernest specialized in magnetic waves and X-rays. In 1898, he collaborated with Eugène Ducretet on the development of wireless telegraphy. Ernest became associated with Eugène Ducretet’s son, Fernand, to set up a company that developed numerous inventions used by the French army in the First World War, then mass-produced wireless sets for the consumers.
In 1889, Henri graduated from the École Centrale as a chemical engineer. He then pursued a career in industry, taking over a bronze lighting factory where his qualifications allowed him to implement a series of innovations in the field of energy.
Ernest and Henri used photography both to document their scientific experiments and their bourgeois family life at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Wireless stations and antennas, construction of the Eiffel Tower, weekends in the countryside and vacations at the seaside, world fairs, journeys in foreign countries - everything was subject to being photographed by these enlightened enthusiasts.
Ernest and Henri Roger. Granville, 1892.
Photo: Ernest Roger
30x40 cm print
Self-portrait at the age of 19. France, July 1888.
Photo: Henri Roger
40x60 cm print
Henri Roger working on a chemistry experiment. France, 1892.
Photo: Henri Roger
30x40 cm print
A Roger family dinner. In the middle on the right, Ernest, and Henri, far right, pressing the shutter button. France, 1889.
Photo: Henri Roger
30x40 cm print
The Roger family. Paris, 1906.
Photo: Henri Roger
40x60 cm print
The whole Viollet family: 2nd row, 2nd left, Henri Roger, his wife Jeanne, 3rd right, seated left in the front row, their daughter Hélène. Chatou, 2 June 1914.
Photo: Henri Roger
30x40cm print
Henri Roger. Pointe du Raz, Brittany 1896.
Photo: Henri Roger
40x60cm print
Madeleine and Thérèse, Ernest and Louise Roger’s daughters, with a friend on the beach. Fécamp, 1909.
Photo: Ernest Roger
40x50 cm print
Madeleine and Thérèse, Ernest and Louise Roger’s daughters, with friends on the raft. Fécamp, August 1909.
Photo: Henri Roger
40x60 cm print
Silhouette of Henri Roger with a revolver. France, 1897.
Photo: Henri Roger
40x60 cm print
Henri Roger climbing the lightning conductor on the Law school roof on the occasion of his engagement to Jeanne Viollet. Paris, 10 December 1899.
Photo: Henri Roger
40x60 cm print
Henri Roger on his balcony, rue de Lancry, with his Cauchois equatorial telescope. Paris, 15 October 1911.
Photo: Henri Roger
40x50 cm print
Henri and Jeanne Roger’s daughters going to bed. France, 14 May 1911.
Photo: Henri Roger
40x50 cm print
The children of Henri and Jeanne Roger playing on a balcony, rue de Lancry. Paris, June 1913.
Photo: Henri Roger
30x40 cm print
Henri and Jeanne Roger’s daughters going to bed. Paris, rue de Lancry, 19 March 1911.
Photo: Henri Roger
30x40 cm print
Madeleine and Thérèse, Ernest and Louise Roger’s daughter, in a rock hole. Fontainebleau forest, August 1906.
Photo: Ernest Roger
40x50 cm print
Bilocation trickery. Henri Roger, his 6 children and their doubles. Hélène Roger-Viollet standing on the left, next to her father. Chatou, June 1918.
Photo: Henri Roger
40x50cm print
Bilocation trickery. Henri, Ernest Roger and their doubles. France, May 1892.
Photo: Henri Roger
40x50cm print
Bilocation trickery. Preparation for bilocation in a 1900 living room. Henri Roger and his double. France, circa 1895.
Photo: Henri Roger
40x50cm print
Trilocation trickery. Henri Roger conversing with himself. France, 1898.
Photo: Henri Roger
50x60cm print
Bilocation trickery. Ernest and Louise Roger and their doubles in a bedroom. France, circa 1895.
Photo: Henri Roger
40x50cm print
Bilocation trickery. Henri Roger and his double. France, 1896.
Photo: Henri Roger
40x50cm print
Bilocation trickery. Henri Roger lightning his double a cigarette. France, January 1895.
Photo: Henri Roger
30x40cm print
Bilocation trickery. Henri Roger setting fire to his own newspaper. Paris, 1895.
Photo: Henri Roger
40x50 cm print
Bilocation trickery. Henri Roger and his double. Paris, 1893.
Photo: Ernest Roger
40x50 cm print
Henri was particularly accomplished in photographic trickeries experiments, not without a touch of humour, which he called “bilocations” and “trilocations”. He produced images in which his brother and himself, and later his own children, appeared in duplicate or triplicate, creating surreal, poetic playlets.
Henri continued to experiment, using magnesium flashes for his “Photos Powder”, and making “Horizontal Projections” using Bertillon forensic identification equipment, diverted from its original application. From the making of photographic equipment to the shooting and development processes, each stage of his practice is the source of detailed descriptions recorded in numerous notebooks, reflecting both his ingenuity and scientific rigour.
Bilocation trickery. Henri Roger between his doubles playing checkers. Paris 23-28 November 1893.
Photo : Henri Roger
40x50cm print
Trilocation trickery. Henri Roger between his doubles playing checkers. Paris 23-28 November 1893.
Photo: Henri Roger
60x80 cm
Bilocation trickery. Henri Roger pouring his double a drink. Paris, 1893.
Photo: Henri Roger
40x50 cm print
Trilocation trickery. Henri Roger and his double consulting a military staff map. Paris, 1895.
Photo : Henri Roger
30x40 cm print
Self-portrait. Preparation for a photographic bilocation trickery. France, 1894.
Photo: Henri Roger
18x24cm print
Bilocation trickery. Henri Roger looking at his miniature double on a stool. France, 1894.
Photo: Henri Roger
30x40 cm print
Self-portrait. Preparation for a bilocation photographic trickery. France, 1894.
Photo: Henri Roger
18x24cm print
Self-portrait. Preparation for a photographic bilocation trickery. France, May 1892.
Photo: Henri Roger
18x24cm print
Trickery, bilocation. Henri Roger carrying his own head on a dish. France, May 1892.
Photo: Henri Roger
30x40cm print
Self-portrait. Preparation for a photographic bilocation trickery. France, May 1892.
Photo: Henri Roger
18x24cm print
Henri Roger, in the air, playing leapfrog. Paris, Montparnasse district, 1896.
Photo: Henri Roger
60x40cm print
Ernest Roger unleashing a bolt of magnesium. France, 1900.
Photo: Ernest Roger
40x40cm print
Aerostatic experiment carried out by Ernest (standing left) and Henri (crouching) Roger. Brunoy, 1891.
Photo: Ernest Roger
40x60 cm print
Self-portrait next to a dynamo in the Edison factory laboratory. Ivry-sur-Seine, March 1893.
Photo: Henri Roger
40x50 cm print
First wireless telegraphy transmission between Ernest Roger, at the Eiffel Tower, and Eugène Ducretet at the Panthéon. Paris, 5 November 1898.
Photo: Ernest Roger
40x50 cm print
Wireless telegraph transmitter. France, circa 1900.
Photo: Ernest Roger
30x40cm print
Military balloon at the Champ de Mars for a wireless telegraphy experiment. Paris, September 1904.
Photo: Ernest Roger
50x60 cm print
Wireless telegraph pole. Dieppe, 1907.
Photo: Ernest Roger
40x50 cm print
The bridge crane. Saint-Malo, 1910.
Photo: Ernest Roger
30x40cm print
Man operating a kite at the bottom of a cliff near Le Havre, 1907.
Photo: Ernest Roger
40x50cm print
The Solidor Tower at low tide. Saint-Servan, 1910.
Photo: Ernest Roger
40x50 cm print
The port seen from the Hôtel du Cheval Blanc. Honfleur, 1908.
Photo: Ernest Roger
40x50 cm print
Walk at the Rouxmesnil-Bouteilles spring. France, 14 August 1910.
Photo: Ernest Roger
30x40 cm print
In 1892 Ernest married Louise-Élisabeth Miet, with whom he had two daughters, subjects of many of his photographs.
In 1900, Henri married Jeanne Viollet and took the name “Roger-Viollet” to differentiate himself from the other members of the Roger family. He was the father of six children, the eldest of whom, Hélène, founded the Roger-Viollet photo agency in 1938.
Family lunch on a beach. Piriac, in 1905.
Photo: Ernest Roger
30x40 cm print
On a lakeside during a family vacation. Romandy, Switzerland, 1895.
Photo: Ernest Roger
30x40 cm print
Mountain climbing on the Mer de Glace (Sea of Ice). Chamonix Valley, circa 1900.
Photo: Ernest Roger
30x40 cm print
Fishing boat. France, 1901.
Photo: Ernest Roger
40x40 cm print
Bike ride on a beach. Saint-Palais-sur-Mer, 1929.
Photo: Henri Roger
13x18 cm print
End of the school day. Ivry-sur-Seine, 1892.
Photo: Henri Roger
60x40cm print
Following the bequest of Hélène Roger-Viollet in 1985, the 10,000 photographs taken by the two Roger brothers are now preserved at the Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris and exclusively distributed by Roger-Viollet.