Missions Héliographiques: history and myth. Part 3

The photographic project of the Missions Heliographiques can be called one of the most specific phenomena in the history of photography. It is customary to evaluate it as a system associated with the fixation and protection of historical monuments and, at the same time, as a material correlated with the development of a new visual program and a new visual mythology. Formed on the platform of the Commission for the Protection of Monuments and remaining one of the examples of early photography, the pictorial project of the Missions Heliographiques, at the same time, became a model of a new visual ideology and a marker of a new artistic practice. The project of the Missions Heliographiques articulated the pictorial mythology of photography, indicated the possibility of the manifest and latent existence of the frame. The Missions Heliographiques discovered the paradoxical possibility of the presence in photography of the invisible, illusory and hidden. The text examines the historical aspects, as well as the main directions that are associated with its activities. The research strategy of this work is focused on two main directions. The first is the presentation of factual material related to the activities of the Missions Heliographiques: despite the apparent abundance of material, its activities have been studied fragmentarily. The second research vector is the visual program and the ideological system of images. The dynamics of the visual practice of the Missions Heliographiques and the ideological and visual standard associated with it are considered. The article considers the history of the development of the pictorial narrative, formed under the influence of the Missions Heliographiques. The purpose of this article is to identify the main historical regulations and articulate the basic meaningful concepts related to the the Missions Heliographiques. The article identifies three main vectors of research. The first is the position of the Heliographic Mission in the system of official institutions for the protection of monuments and photographic societies. The second is the study of the visual practice of the Heliographic mission and the formation of an ideological and visual standard associated with it. The third part of the article is devoted to the ideological aspects of architectural photography and, in particular, to the problems of the invisible in photography and projects of the Heliographic Mission. The author declares no conflict of interest.

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