A Tribute to Jules Richard
A Tribute to Jules Richard
Our collection is named after Jules Richard because he can be described as the most relevant inventor of stereo photography. Not only did he create small formats within the portrayal technique and easier camera systems but he also invented the appropriate viewers and flexibly operated stereo machines.
In addition to this he loved creating nude photographs in 3D technique and he even built his own studio for this in his Parisian villa in roman style that he made available for other nude image photographers.
Jules Richard was born on the 19th of December 1848 and from the year 1863 onwards he completed a 3 year watchmaker apprenticeship with Mr Collina. After the year 1866 he became a technician within administration of telegraph networks. During the year 1871 he changed over to his fathers business and worked with his brother producing photo cameras and scientific precision instruments.
A barograph (a barograph is a registering barometer = a barometric pressure recorder that records
chronological sequences of pressure distribution at the observation place) that was patented in 1880 became a great commercial success.
In 1882 he became president of the Société Richard Frères (Associates of the brothers Richard) which was renamed Société Jules Richard in 1891.
In 1893 he patented a new all-metal stereographic camera named “Vérascope“. Up until then the stereo camera with its wooden case, the leather bellows and both large lenses was heavy and difficult to manage. Richard developed a new format with the picture measuring 45 x 107 mm which made these handy cameras weigh a lot less and they more or less became a camera for everyone.This patented camera is a stereo camera for individual shots or with an interchangeable cassette including a counter mechanism for 12 plates of 45 x 107 mm format and it has a lens basis of 63 mm.
The camera has a guillotine shutter and continuously adjustable shutter speeds of 1/9 to 1/150 seconds, three apertures: 4,5 - 8 - 16 and a distance setting of 1,5 m to infinity. It has a mirror reflex viewfinder and a Newton viewfinder with a visor. In addition to this there are 2 integrated spirit levels and a tripod mount using a conical hole. To add to that he developed the matching collapsible stereo image viewer at the same time. The camera and the viewer were made of brass.
This invention was marketed at the right time and it was very successful. It is said that the impact of Jules Richard\'s new stereo camera had nearly the same large impact as did the later film developments of the company Kodak George Eastman. The new format quickly became popular, especially because the company also delivered various accessories such as automatic timers and removable magazines and also photo materials such as stereoscopic dry plates, foils and further accessories from their own production to their customers. In short everything that was needed in order to fulfil every wish of stereo photography enthusiasts was provided by Richard.
In addition to the Vérascope Camera with the stereo format version with the size 45 x 107 mm he later also developed cameras with the formats 6 x 13 cm and later 7 x 13 cm. In total 78 model variants of the “Verascope” with the formats 4,5 x 10,7, 6 x 13 and 7 x13 cm were produced with 7 different interchangeable cassettes and 4 different roll film magazines. He also developed further model series such as the GLYPHOSCOPE. After taking off the optical component this camera could simultaneously be used as a viewer for the finished stereo pictures.
Since the end of the 1920s 35 mm cameras were added such as the Verascope F40, the Homeos with the formats 24 x 18 mm and the Le Sterea, a camera made of aluminium. Along with all his stereo formats he developed the individually fitting viewers in wood and metal with respectively excellent optics.
At the beginning of the 20th century he also developed stereo viewers such as for example the TAXIPHOTE, a stereo tabletop viewer made of oak for serial semi automatic viewing of glass stereo slides of the format 7,5 x 17 cm. The oculars have achromatic lenses and they are focusable by means of a sprocket drive. The eye distance is adjustable. The picture magazine holds 25 glass stereo slides.
The pictures can be shown one after the other in optional order. The incoming light is distributed equally by the ground glass. The device is equipped with a counter mechanism. It was produced from 1903 onwards by Jules Richard, Paris.
TAXIPHOTE STANDARD,
Stereo viewers made of mahogany, simultaneously a storage box for 12 magazines, in series, semi- automatic viewing of glass stereo slides of the format 4,5 x 10,7 cm. The oculars have achromatic lenses and they are focusable by means of a sprocket drive. The eye distance is adjustable. The picture magazine holds 25 glass stereo slides. The pictures can be shown one after the other in optional order. The incoming light is distributed equally by the ground glass. The device is equipped with a counter mechanism and a swivel reflector loupe that enables reading labels on the slides. It was produced around 1905 by Jules Richard, Paris.
Jules Richard also worked as a photographer Jules Richard not only possessed knowledge of stereo photography like no other he also used this knowledge for himself as an enthusiastic photographer. A large number of stereo plates exist that he took on the battlefields and in the trenches of the first world war and on his travels in Africa and Asia.
Above all he was an enthusiastic photographer of nude images. In order to indulge this passion further he built an atrium in roman style in his villa in Paris with a small water feature in the inner part, artistic pillars and antique furniture replicas. In the garden he had outer walls, staircases and another water feature designed. Many very aesthetic and well composed nude photos were taken in the atrium and in the gardens in the years 1905 until approximately 1920. Not only did he photograph individual models but he often also photographed groups of three or four models. He had clearly photographed nude images beforehand in various locations: in the theatre in Chantemerle, in the cabaret in Tabarin and in nature at rivers, lakes and in forests. Chantemerle near Aix-les-Bains was his first accommodation, the atrium was an antique styled studio that was added to his townhouse in Paris, which in itself gave his stereo images a location for an artistic acceptance of the taken images.
The pictures from Cabaret Tabarin, located approximately in the middle of Montmate, are mostly from the year 1920. His studio was also used by other photographers who worked for him but also for their own sales series such as Achilles Lemoine and Jean Angelou. Full nudity was certainly not generally accepted in these times but the atmosphere of Greek and Roman mythology in these shots was his method to stop any critique of non acceptance of nude images at the time.
In order to improve the marketing of his images he invented “copy frames” to change stereos from negative to positive and the “Verascope Inverseur”. This is a device for the semi automatic conversion of 4,5 x 10,7 cm as well as 6 x 13 cm negative plates to slide glass plates, to begin with by means of a petroleum lamp and later with a 25 watt lamp at 115 volt. He also produced these devices in his company “Richard Frères, Paris“. In order to control the exposure time a clock was built in and in the drawer below the unexposed slide plates were stored. A more committed collector of his nude photographs will quickly recognise that he offered his negatives for sale, some several times - highly in demand ones also many times - under different image numbers.
In 1923 Jules Richard founded a school and a foundation in accordance with the town of Paris that still to this day carries his name “Lycée privé technologique Jules Richard“ which was a private school, universal in its education and free for all students.
Jules Richard died on the 18th of June 1930.