My great-grandfather Henri Louis Duperly, who was also a                                                  My grand-father Oscar Duperly
photographer is shown above in a studio pose, which he used as his                                  was a photographer and the first dealer
studio advertisement.                                                                                                                        for Kodak in South America.

Photography has been in my family for five generations now. My memory takes me to my early years in Colombia among the darkrooms of my family lab, looking at the stunning glass negatives shot by my great-grandfather and listening all kind of fantastic stories about my ancestors' voyages during the 19^th century.

My great-great-grandfather, Adolphe Duperly, was one of the earliest photographers in the Caribbean. According to advertisements, he established his photographic firm in Jamaica in 1840--just one year after the photographic process was made public for the first time in Paris!

He was known for his daguerreotype* series titled "Excursions in Jamaica," exhibited in Paris in 1844. Henri Louis Duperly continued in his father's footsteps, working as a photographer in Colombia beginning in 1876, and documenting the construction of the Panama Canal. Oscar Duperly, my grandfather and Adolphe's grandson, was the first dealer for Kodak in South America, and opened his Colombian photographic lab in 1915. It is still operational today.

This amazing heritage is not only a privilege, but also a challenge. During my teen years I liked to take pictures, but I also loved to paint. It was very difficult for me to decide between the different art expressions, but my birthright won out. I studied with passion and received my diploma from The New England School of Photography in Boston. For many years I worked as a commercial photographer and teacher, but I never gave up my painting.

Now I am developing a new process that only a few years ago would have been impossible to even imagine. New technologies allow me to mix the mediums and explore a new world where reality and fantasy meet.

* The daguerreotype was the first photographic process. It was able to capture the image without the use of a negative in a highly detailed picture printed on a sheet of copper coated with silver.

Cambridge Univerity Library: RSC Photographers Project

NYPL Digital Gallery

Photographs from H.L.Duperly's and Son Studio
 

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