NORBERT GHISOLAND: A FORERUNNER OF SURREALISM

Norbert Ghisoland was born on 17 March 1878 at La Bouverie, a village in the Borinage district of Belgium. His father was a deep-seam coal-miner who wanted a better life for his sons: photography for one and carpentry for the other. When the photographer was killed in an accident, Norbert, the carpenter, took his place. In 1902, aged 24, he moved to another village called Frameries, a stone’s throw from La Bouverie, and opened his photographer’s studio at 43 Grand’Rue. Behind the studio’s two display windows was his family home, his studio and his darkroom. He would live and work here until his death on 2 November 1939.

In the early years of the twentieth century, a stream of ordinary people filed into the studio, for full-length portraits or photos for identity cards, taken in front of a trompe-l’oeil background or a simple white backdrop, with infinite grace under the attentive and tender eye of Norbert Ghisoland.

Alone or in groups, tens of thousands of people passed in front of his cameras: the middle-classes, miners, soldiers, monks and nuns, sports teams, people of all ages, sometimes even dogs. Norbert lent them clothes and accessories. He showed them the poses to adopt: sitting or standing with their hands folded or on their shoulders, with serious expressions. There is so much tenderness and emotion in these portraits. They don’t smile much: they came from the Black Country.