The photography museum in Charleroi was inaugurated in 1987 in the old neo-Gothic Carmel of Mont-sur-Marchienne .
Two ancient and vast chapels make it possible to present large-scale thematic exhibitions, of historical, monographic or thematic character, often dedicated to contemporary creation. They are still international in character, as are the permanent exhibitions. Two other rooms offer other temporary exhibitions. Each year the museum thus presents nine temporary exhibitions (three simultaneous exhibitions renewed every four months). As for the permanent exhibitions, they aim to give the visitor an idea of the history of photography from daguerreotypes and the first travel photos to the most recent artistic approaches.
The museum collects donations of photographs (negatives or prints) as well as books on photography from different backgrounds, including foreign donors. A library of 13,000 titles plus 4,000 files devoted to photographers is freely accessible to researchers and amateurs for on-site consultation
Overview of the collections
One can thus discover at the museum the Female Nude of Auguste Belloc (around 1855), the famous photo taken by François Aubert in 1867 of the mortal remains of the Emperor Maximilian of Mexico after his execution (in albumen paper : this photo was used for certify the death of the emperor and the political failure of Napoleon III in this regard), the photo of Niagara Falls assigned Platt D. Babbitt (between 1854 and 1870 ), a Ambrotype , daguerreotypes of Modeste Winandyrepresenting the inhabitants of Marchienne-au-Pont ( 1847 ), the photo of the moon by Adolphe Neyt in 1869 ( collodied paper ), the arenas of Arles photographed around 1855 by Édouard Denis Baldus (albumen paper), carried it by George Sand by Nadar ( Photoglyptie ) in 1864 , the photo by Wilhelm von Gloeden titled Sicily , the photos by Norbert Ghisoland (notably the portrait of four female mine workers at Borinage in 1921 titledLong live Sainte Barbe ! ), pictorialism , the famous Nude, Point Lobos by Edward Weston (1936), the Praise of Carnage by surrealist Marcel Lefrancq , Henri Cartier-Bresson , the location photos of Misère au Borinage by Willy Kessels , The Accordionist, restaurant La Tartine by Robert Doisneau (1953), Le dos d’Astrid by Jeanloup Sieff , New-York by Hubert Grooteclaes ( 1965 ), Huh yeh-Mei and his familyby the Chinese Liang Kuo Lung (circa 1990 ), etc.
In january 2010, the museum has published a 320-page catalog, trilingual (French, English, Dutch), with 300 four-color illustrations representing a wide choice of works in the museum’s collections.
