Alfred Briquet | |
Birth Name: | Alfred Saint-Ange Briquet |
Birth Date: | 30 December 1833 |
Birth Place: | Paris, France |
Death Place: | Mexico |
Death Date: | 1926 (aged 92-93) |
Occupation: | photographer |
Alfred Saint-Ange Briquet (30 December 1833, Paris – 1926, Mexico) was a French pioneer of photography, particularly in Mexico.
Briquet became a photographer in Paris in 1854. He taught photography at École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr, the prominent French military academy.[1]
He closed his studio in Paris in 1865, but it not certain when he started work in Mexico, however in 1876, he did receive a commission to record the construction of the Mexican National Railway (Ferrocarril Nacional Mexicano - FNM) line being built between Veracruz and Mexico City.[1] He gained the attention of President Porfirio Díaz and secured a number of commissions. He also published a series of photography books: Vistas Mexicanas, Tipos Mexicanos and Antiquedades Mexicanos.[1] Following the Mexican Revolution of 1910 he no longer received any government contracts.[1]
His photos appeared in several books, and albums among them we can mention "Mexico artístico y pintoresco" edited by Julio Michaud and "Mexico, Its Social Evolution" coordinated by the historian Justo Sierra.