
An artistic and scientific cultural project
Since 2021, the Institute of Materials Science and the Sorbonne University Library have been piloting a project together to promote the Lippmann plate collection. Archived and repackaged, the collection is today the starting point of an ambitious interfaculty project of scientific and technical culture on the theme of color.
Lippmann’s interference photography
Lippmann received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1908 for his discovery in 1891 of color photography by the interference method: the tenth French Nobel Prize was awarded “for his method of reproducing colors in photography, based on the phenomenon of interference”.
Its discovery allows the complete reconstruction of all the visible wavelengths reflected by an object.
Historical Perspectives
Lippmann's photographic method led him to take a limited number of historical photographs, today scattered in public and private collections around the world. A good number, 130 of these historical photos, are currently kept at the Musée de l’Élysée in Lausanne. And another part is currently kept at the IMPMC on the Pierre and Marie Curie campus in Jussieu and in the collections of Sorbonne University.
The Sorbonne University collection
Made up of 46 plates, the Lippmann collection of Sorbonne University is carefully preserved on the Pierre et Parie Curie Campus. The photochromies in this collection all come from the production of Gabriel Lippmann or from his research laboratory, the Physics Research Laboratory of the Faculty of Sciences of Paris. The photos represent various subjects: a character, still lifes, landscapes of the Paris region and the south of France.
After their production, Lippmann voluntarily gave these plates to the faculty for use in the teaching of physics. As part of a project to promote this exceptional heritage led by the Institute of Materials Science, the plates are currently being archived by the SU Archives Service and have been approved by specialists from the Research Center on Conservation to consider the first conservation actions necessary to protect this fabulous scientific heritage.
The art of freezing light: the exhibition
For the 2021 Festives, the Lippmann project team created an educational exhibition dedicated to the SU collection, thought of as itinerant and evolving: The art of freezing light - The collection of Lippmann photographs from Sorbonne University
6 self-supporting rollup panels, 30 photos organized on 14 self-illuminated shelves.
Exhibition : L'art de geler la lumière

Contact
Emmanuel Sautjeau
The Lippmann project
Initially, the iMAT chose to commission an operational person to reflect on the valorization of this historical collection, initiate inventory and archiving missions with the SU Archives Service and launch the first contacts with specialists, curators and museologists.
So a first team has been set up and is leading the first actions:
- Marina Cagnon-Trouche (Étudiante M2 à Sorbonne Universté)
- Deniz Dalkara (Chercheuse à l'Institut de la Vision)
- Isabelle Ewig (Maître de conférences en histoire de l’art contemporain, Centre André Chastel, Sorbonne Université)
- Rémi Gaillard (Directeur adjoint de la BSU - Responsable du pôle Patrimoine)
- Paola Giura (Enseignant-chercheur à l'IMPMC)
- Barthélémy Jobert (Professeur d'histoire de l'art à Paris-Sorbonne )
- Marie-Angélique Languille (Ingénieure de recherche CNRS au Centre de recherche sur la Conservation)
- Arnaud Maillet (Maître de Conférences à l'Université Paris-Sorbonne)
- Anne Michelin (Maître de Conférences au Centre de recherche sur la Conservation)
- Céline Paletta (Chargée de mission science culture société - DRV-FSI)
- Emmanuel Sautjeau (chef de projet iMAT - référent opérationnel projet Lippmann)
- Abhay Shukla (Directeur iMAT, professeur à l'IMPMC)
- Océane Valencia (service des archives)
The archiving and conservation missions were carried out directly by Rémi Gaillard (Deputy Director of the BSU - Responsible for the Heritage department) and Océane Valencia (archives service).
For the 2021 Festives, the team created an educational pilot exhibition dedicated to the SU collection, designed as itinerant and evolving:
L'art de geler la lumière
La collection des photographie Lippmann de Sorbonne Université
Secondly, the institute would like to offer Sorbonne University a permanent exhibition around the theme of color, a web version and also a traveling version. This cultural project could bring together various thematic aspects:
- the interaction of light and materials, the physical phenomenon of color, a theme anchored in the iMAT and in the Faculty of Science and Engineering,
- painting-photo interaction and art history with the Faculty of Letters,
- and finally the perception of color with the Faculty of Medicine.