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The son of a wealthy Parisian banker, Robert Demachy's financial independence enabled him to pursue his interests in music and art. Beginning in the 1880s, he made photographs in the pictorial style and in 1894 began to use the gum bichromate process, which allowed considerable handwork to be done on the print. Demachy was a prominent defender of the use of manipulative printing techniques, and wrote more than a thousand articles and numerous books on the technical processes and issues involved. With their soft details, reminiscent of Impressionist paintings, his photographs were greatly admired by his contemporaries.