Auguste Vautier-Dufour: the long distance photographer

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Auguste Vautier-Dufour with a Telephot in a forest (approx. 1910). Camera Museum, Vevey

Auguste Vautier-Dufour's Photograph of the Rhone Glacier (July 19, 1897) ETH-Bibliothek Zürich

The snow capped Dent de Brenleire, Dent de Folliéran and Vanil Noir. View taken with the Telephot by Auguste Vautier-Dufour (December 18, 1900). Camera Museum, Vevey

Auguste Vautier-Dufour’s family: Emma, Camille, Emmeline, Germaine, Hilda, Auguste, wearing ice skates on the frozen Lake of Neuchâtel, in front of their house Fleur d'Eau in Grandson. View probably taken with the Telephot (approx. 1910). Camera Museum, Vevey

Emma Vautier-Dufour, Auguste’s wife, playing diabolo. View taken with the Telephot by Auguste Vautier-Dufour (October 1907). Camera Museum, Vevey

Jacques-Henri Apothéloz, old angler from Grandson (90-years-old), on his boat the Indefatigable. View taken with the Telephot by Auguste Vautier-Dufour (1908). Courtesy of Camera Museum, Vevey

Hilda Vautier, Auguste Vautier-Dufour’s daughter, playing. View probably taken with the Telephot by Auguste Vautier-Dufour (approx. 1910). Camera, Museum, Vevey

Sunset. Autochrome taken with the Telephot probably by Auguste Vautier-Dufour (approx. 1910). Camera, Museum, Vevey

Mountain and fog. View probably taken with the Telephot (approx. 1910). Camera Museum, Vevey

Auguste Vautier-Dufour’s daughters: Emmeline, Germaine and Hilda on a steamer. View probably taken with the Telephot by Auguste Vautier-Dufour (approx. 1910). Camera Museum, Vevey

The Acropolis and the Mount Lycabettus in Athens. View taken with the Telephot from the Pnyx by Fred Boissonnas (approx. 1910). Camera Museum, Vevey

The snow capped Tour d'Aï. View taken with the Telephot from Beaumaroche in Chardonne by Auguste Vautier-Dufour (January 1902). Camera Museum, Vevey

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In the late 1800s Swiss photography pioneer Auguste Vautier-Dufour was facing a problem. How to take long distance photographs without a very bulky camera? A series of experiments led to the invention of the Telephot.

Vautier-Dufour, born in Grandson, canton Vaud in 1864, was not a professional photographer. Although he worked as the director of a tobacco factory, his passion was astrophotography – photographing objects from a great distance and mountainous landscapes.

He also snapped away at family and strangers in their natural environment who, oblivious to the camera, carried on with their daily business or hobbies.

Vautier-Dufour wanted to photograph objects from far away using a compact apparatus equipped with a very long focal depth. On the face of it, this seemed like a contradiction.

In the 1890s, he started to lead various experiments on a self-taught basis, thanks to the advice of Emile Schaer, deputy astronomer at the Geneva Observatory. Schaer advised Vautier-Dufour on the production of his specialised equipment, giving him hints as to which long-firing lenses were particularly suitable for his purposes.

From these trials the Telephot was developed. It was an original contraption: two internally mounted mirrors extended the distance which light has to travel by making it run the length of the camera three times, allowing the use of a longer focal perspective.

The Telephot was patented on March 14, 1901. As Vautier-Dufour lacked the sufficient capital to market his invention, he and photographer Frederic Boissonnas set up Véga (the Anonymous Photography and Optics Company) in 1904. Its head office was located in Geneva, where various versions of the Telephot were produced and sold.