Label TextA renowned novelist and playwright in Paris at the end of the nineteenth century, Zola
was also a virtuosic self-taught photographer and photographic printer. Though his
records show that he created nearly 7,000 glass-plate negatives, only 300 have survived.
Many of these surviving negatives are Zola’s images of the Exposition Universelle de
1900 (1900 Paris Exposition), a world’s fair held in Paris from April 14 to November 12,
1900. Zola’s photographs capture a colonialist France with fair pavilions displaying the
culture of the French occupied territories. Also included in the series are images of
thematic pavilions that celebrated industrialization and the benefits of modern
technology for extractive mining practices. Taken together, these photographs document
a modernizing nation with a flair for public spectacle. Known for literary work that the
features the figure of the flâneur, a man who wanders and observes the modern city;
here, Zola takes on this roll through the lens of his camera.
DimensionsOverall: 2 3/8 x 3 1/4 in. (6 x 8.3 cm)
Accession Number 2025.171
Classificationsphotograph
ProvenanceJeff Perry; Des Moines Art Center [gift from the previous, 2025]
Seventeenth Annual World's Largest Motorcycle Blessing, St. Christopher Shrine, Midlothian, Illinois
Danny Lyon
1965, printed 2008
