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1851 Baron Alexis de La Grange (photographer)

Baron Alexis de La Grange (1825–1917) was a French aristocrat, pioneering photographer, and politician. He is historically known as one of the first travel photographers to document the landmarks of India and Southeast Asia in the mid-19th century.

His Photographic Journey to Asia (1849–1851)
After completing his service as a naval artillery officer, he embarked on a personal journey in 1849, taking his camera with him. He visited India, Sri Lanka (Ceylon), Indonesia (Java), Malaysia, and Singapore, accompanied by his cousin, the politician Felix Lambrecht. He used the then-innovative wax paper negative technique. He is believed to have taken the oldest surviving photograph of the Taj Mahal in 1851.

He produced at least 63 negatives that meticulously and consistently documented Islamic and Hindu architecture and landscapes. Upon his return to Paris in 1851, some of his work was collected in a renowned photographic album by the pioneer Louis Désiré Blanccar-Evrard.

He served as a deputy in the French Parliament for the Nord region during the 1870s and 1880s. He later retired to manage his fortune and farmland until his death at his castle in Sebourg in 1917 at the age of 91.

A rare and very valuable collection of photographs taken by Baron Alexis de La Grange during his historic trip to India between 1849 and 1851 exists.

Unfortunately, no confirmed and publicly known portrait of this photographer exists in the major international art archives.