Early Gaze – Unseen Photography from the 19th Century, a richly produced volume edited by Tamara Berghmans and Ingrid Leonard, offers a sweeping and revelatory journey through that pioneering era when the camera first met the Belgian imagination.
Drawing from FOMU Antwerp’s extensive archives and rarely seen private collections, the book traces photography’s evolution from the daguerreotype’s silvered surfaces to the soft-toned artistry of the pictorialists.
It reveals a society enthralled by images – from bourgeois portrait studios and industrial documentation to royal propaganda and colonial spectacle. Each photograph opens a window onto the formation of a modern visual identity: who was allowed to be seen, and who remained invisible.
Beyond its technical milestones, the period showed photography’s changing moral and political dimensions as the medium became entwined with nation-building, scientific discovery and empire. The images are sepia cityscapes, ghostly portraits and delicate albumen prints.
As the accompanying FOMU exhibition (running until March 1, 2026) shows, this is not nostalgia but archaeology – a rediscovery of photography’s early magic, its manipulations of truth and power, and its enduring capacity to shape how a young nation saw itself.
Belgian King Leopold I. Taken from "Early Gaze – Unseen Photography from the 19th Century", a richly produced volume edited by Tamara Berghmans and Ingrid Leonard.
"Early Gaze – Unseen Photography from the 19th Century,", a richly produced volume edited by Tamara Berghmans and Ingrid Leonard.
Digging up Ghent Lock. Taken from Early Gaze – Unseen Photography from the 19th Century, a richly produced volume edited by Tamara Berghmans and Ingrid Leonard.
Many photos from Early Gaze – Unseen Photography from the 19th Century, a richly produced volume edited by Tamara Berghmans and Ingrid Leonard.
Explosion. Early Gaze – Unseen Photography from the 19th Century,, a richly produced volume edited by Tamara Berghmans and Ingrid Leonard.
"Iguanodon de Bernissart" (1878). Taken Early Gaze – Unseen Photography from the 19th Century, a richly produced volume edited by Tamara Berghmans and Ingrid Leonard.
Portrait by Madeleine Bovier. Taken from Early Gaze – Unseen Photography from the 19th Century, a richly produced volume edited by Tamara Berghmans and Ingrid Leonard.
Self portrait of Louis Ghemar and a piano. Early Gaze – Unseen Photography from the 19th Century, a richly produced volume edited by Tamara Berghmans and Ingrid Leonard.
A hot air balloon. Early Gaze – Unseen Photography from the 19th Century, a richly produced volume edited by Tamara Berghmans and Ingrid Leonard.
Taken from Early Gaze – Unseen Photography from the 19th Century, a richly produced volume edited by Tamara Berghmans and Ingrid Leonard.
One of the oldest photos in Belgium, believed to be Ghent. Taken from Early Gaze – Unseen Photography from the 19th Century", a richly produced volume edited by Tamara Berghmans and Ingrid Leonard.
Taken from Early Gaze – Unseen Photography from the 19th Century, a richly produced volume edited by Tamara Berghmans and Ingrid Leonard.
Taken from Early Gaze – Unseen Photography from the 19th Century, a richly produced volume edited by Tamara Berghmans and Ingrid Leonard.
A Belgian family. Taken from Early Gaze – Unseen Photography from the 19th Century, a richly produced volume edited by Tamara Berghmans and Ingrid Leonard.
