“Une révolution photographique”: proyecciones de Victor Hugo durante el exilio

From his exile in Jersey and Guernesey between 1852 and 1870, Victor Hugo sought to be present at the center of French society. Photography appears appeared as a means of ensuring that his figure and his work are were not forgotten and that they continued to exert an influence in the public sphere. It is a family project: the photographs were taken by his sons, François-Victor and Charles Hugo, and Auguste Vacquerie, brother of the husband of Leópoldine Hugo, Hugo's daughter. Unlike his contemporaries, the writer recognized the mediatic power of photography and wished to construct his authorial figure on the basis of photographic images. In the 19th century, photography was not conceived as a product of artistic subjectivity and it was thought that the imagination of photographers was not involved in the process, or it was (agregué estas palabras, que no están en el original porque me parece que si no, no se entiende) only to a limited extent. Despite the technical limitations of the process, in correspondence with his publisher, Pierre-Jules Hetzel, Hugo expressed his desire to use photography instead of lithography and sensed the revolutionary potential of the camera. This paper seeks intends to explore the discussions between Hugo and Hetzel on the role of photography in the construction of the figure and work of the writer.