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The Early photographs of Edmond Fortier: documenting postcards from Senegal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2022

Patricia Hickling
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Extract

Francois Edmond Fortier (1862-1928) was undoubtedly the most prolific photographer working in French West Africa in the first decade of the 20th century. He produced well over 3300 photographs, almost all in postcard form. He was born in France and appears in Senegal around the year 1900. Unlike most of his predecessors who plied the photographic trade in the well established and well to do city of St. Louis, Fortier made his home in the new and expanding capital city of Dakar. He is best described as a “petit colon”, who succeeded in making a living as a professional postcard photographer/editor selling his work from a small Dakar shop and distributing postcards to the towns along the railway line. In later years local advertisements indicate that Fortier's shop catered to the military, bureaucratic, colonial population of the city, offering tobacco, stationary, Senegalese knick-knacks and postcards.

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Articles
Information
African Research and Documentation , Volume 102 , 2007 , pp. 37 - 53
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2007

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Footnotes

1

My thanks are due to Philippe David who kindly read and commented on this article and to Christraud Geary for her encouragement and for many happy discussions about postcards and photography in Africa. Philippe David's recent article; “Hostalier - Noal: Un duel de photographes au journal Officiel du Sénégal, il y a cent ans”, Association Images & Mémoires-Lettre de Liaison, No.14. Nov, 2006, offers additional evidence and detail regarding the early career of Fortier and the photography studios of Senegal. All illustrations are from the private collection of the author. ©Patricia Hickling.

References

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