Zola the photographer at the Mai Manó House

Émile Zola picked up a camera at forty-eight and never put it down. This is what came of it, a hundred or so prints of the novelist's private world.

About the event

Zola was largely self-taught, though Félix Nadar and Étienne Carjat were among his friends. From 1894, with his major novels behind him, photography became a daily habit. He fitted out darkrooms in his houses and developed and printed the work himself, leaving more than two thousand glass negatives.

Where the novels dissected social injustice, the camera turned inward, to family, friends and the rooms and gardens he lived in. Matthieu Rivallin curates, pairing about a hundred modern prints from the negatives with fourteen made in Zola's own time, all from the Médiathèque du patrimoine et de la photographie in France. Allow 30 to 40 minutes. The house is not step-free.

Dates and times

• 3 September to 25 OctoberTuesday to Sunday 12:00 to 19:00, last entry 18:30

Getting there