Hollow Oak Tree, Fontainebleau

Originally a student of painting, Le Gray began experimenting with photography in the late 1840s, and became well-known for his photos of the Forest of Fontainebleau. He was a founding member of the Société Héliographique in 1851, and of the Société Française de Photographie in 1854. He introduced the wax paper process to the Académie des Sciences in 1851. That same year, Le Gray along with Bayard, Baldus, Le Secq and Mestral, began to photograph the architectural monuments of France for the Commission des Monuments Historiques. He worked with his student Mestral on goverment sponsored missions héliographiques in the Touraine and Aquitaine. In 1855, he established a commercial studio in Paris, which dissolved by 1960 due to financial difficulties. To escape creditors, he moved to Egypt, and continued to photograph and teach there until his death in 1884. French photographer.