Embodying the photographic image: Charles Marville’s Old Paris and New Paris series

French photographer Charles Marville was first commissioned by the city to photograph the soon-to-be demolished neighbourhoods and buildings of old Paris (1864-69,) and, subsequently, to document the buildings and boulevards of new Paris (1877) during Haussmannization, the urban renewal project to modernise Paris initiated by Napoleon III. These dual commissions coincided with a number of technical and formal changes in the photographer’s approach, and in turn, elicited distinct responses, from the viewers at the time, or modern curators, suggesting a change in presumed embodied and affective reactions. This chapter examines if and how the photographic image triggers associative affects and physical effects in the viewer in accordance with their mnemonic and aesthetic functions. It answers these questions by blending research and methodologies from art history (first and second part) and empirical aesthetic (third part.)