Abel Briquet

France, (1833–1926)
a photography teacher at the French military academy of Saint-Cyr and a Parisian studio photographer, arrived in Mexico in 1883 to photograph Mexican ports for the shipping firm Compagnie Maritime Transatlantique. He opened a studio in Mexico City in 1885 and began to produce a large body of work on a variety of subjects—from landscape, flora and fauna, and tipos to views of Pre-Columbian, colonial, and modern buildings and monuments. He created a number of commemorative albums for the Porfirian government that documented modernization projects and public works, and also published photographic series with titles such as Vistas Mexicanas and Tipos Mexicanos. Briquet is considered to have been the first modern commercial photographer in Mexico.

The following photographic series are credited to Briquet, with approximately dates provided as available: Vistas Mexicanas (ca. 1880), Tipos Mexicanos (mid-1880s), Rumbos de México (1890), Álbum Mexicano, Álbum de la Compañía Constructora Nacional, México (1901 and 1909), Ferrocarril Central Mexicano (1908 and 1910), México Moderno (1909), and Alrededores de México (1897 and 1910). The photographs in the Benson Collection are principally from the Vistas Mexicanas and Tipos Mexicanos series.