Born in Lille in 1802, Louis-Désiré Blanquart-Évrard is a pillar of the history of photography. Until now, there has been no mass-market book dedicated to him. Photographers like Maxime du Camp, Bayard, Le Secq, Marville and Salzmann entrusted their publication work to him. The book that the CRP/ has dedicated to him contains historical research by Jean-Claude Gautrand and an aesthetic essay by Alain Buisine. The reproduction of around 70 plates shows Blanquart-Évrard’s aesthetic choices, which testify to the concerns of the time, while constituting a highly modern museum of imagination.