François-Edmond Fortier was a French documentary photographer, editor and ethnographer

Ethnography

Ethnography is a qualitative method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group...

.

He published over 3000 postcard

Postcard

A postcard or post card is a rectangular piece of thick paper or thin cardboard intended for writing and mailing without an envelope....

s of French West Africa

French West Africa

French West Africa was a federation of eight French colonial territories in Africa: Mauritania, Senegal, French Sudan , French Guinea , Côte d'Ivoire , Upper Volta , Dahomey and Niger...

 (Afrique Occidentale Française). These were published during his lifetime, with or without his permission, in more than 10 books. Postcards and reprints can be found in several collections all over the world.

Biography

Born in the tiny village of Celles-sur-Plaine in the Vosges, France in 1862, François-Edmond Fortier lived for several years in Saint-Louis, Senegal

Saint-Louis, Senegal

Saint-Louis, or Ndar as it is called in Wolof, is the capital of Senegal's Saint-Louis Region. Located in the northwest of Senegal, near the mouth of the Senegal River, and 320 km north of Senegal's capital city Dakar, it has a population officially estimated at 176,000 in 2005. Saint-Louis...

 then moved to Dakar

Dakar

Dakar is the capital city and largest city of Senegal. It is located on the Cap-Vert Peninsula on the Atlantic coast and is the westernmost city on the African mainland...

 in 1900.

In 1902 to 1903, he explored Fouta-Djalon, then Haute-Guinée

Upper Guinea

Upper Guinea or la Haute-Guinée is a large plain covering eastern Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and extending into north western Côte d'Ivoire. Mostly forming the upper watershed of the River Niger, it is sparsely populated and is home to the Haut Niger National Park.Upper Guinea can also refer to...

. In 1905-1906, he travelled in Soudan Français

French Sudan

French Sudan was a colony in French West Africa that had two separate periods of existence, first from 1890 to 1899, then from 1920 to 1960, when the territory became the independent nation of Mali.-Colonial establishment:...

, Kankan

Kankan

Kankan is the largest city in Guinea in land area, and the third largest in population at 207,790 . The city is located on the Milo River in eastern Guinea and lying about 345 miles east of Conakry....

, Bamako

Bamako

Bamako is the capital of Mali and its largest city with a population of 1.8 million . Currently, it is estimated to be the fastest growing city in Africa and sixth fastest in the world...

, Djenné

Djenné

Djenné is an Urban Commune and town in the Inland Niger Delta region of central Mali. In the 2009 census the commune had a population of 32,944. Administratively it is part of the Mopti Region....

 and Tombouctou.

François-Edmond Fortier spent his late years in his shop on the corner of Boulevard Pinet-Laprade/Rue Dagornein the Médina de Dakar. He was a small man, blonde, with little beard "pointu" and always wore a pointed military topi

Pith helmet

The pith helmet is a lightweight cloth-covered helmet made of cork or pith...

. He had a favourite remark “Le Cantal?… mon berceau, Dakar mon tombeau!” (The Cantal my cradle, Dakar.. my tomb)

External links

• Centre Edmond Fortier (CEF)
• Fortier, un photographe très moderne (texte de Jean-Michel Andrault)
• Fortier - The Early Years