FREDERIC GADMER (1878-1954)
Les Jumeaux - Castor (4, 233m-13,888ft) et Pollux (4, 092m-13,425ft)
Switzerland - Italy border
Depuis le Gornergrat - Autochrome Lumière, 1921
Musée départemental Albert-Khan, Paris, France
The mountains
Les Jumeaux (The Twins) are made - as the name indicates clearly enough - of two almost identical peaks of theValais Alps or Pennine Alps : Castor (4,223 meters - 13,888 ft)) in Italian Punta Castore and Pollux (4, 092 meters - 13,425ft) north-northwest. Castor is located between Breithorn and Mont Rose, Italy, just south of the Swiss- Italian border. The first ascent took place August 23, 1861.
The twins Castor and Pollux are separated by Zwillingsjoch (Italian: Passo di Verra, 3845 m).
Both peaks are so named in reference to the Dioscuri in Greek mythology, Castor and Pollux, sons of Zeus. The Greeks were not unanimous about Castor's origin. For some, he was the son of Leda and her husband Tyndareus. Conceived on the same night, Castor and Pollux were twin brothers, but Pollux, son of Zeus, was a semi-god, while Castor was mortal. For others, Castor was a son of Zeus as his brother.
The celebrity of the twin brothers Castor and Pollux is mainly due to a dispute that took place between Castor and his cousin Idas, during which Idas strikes mortally Castor. Pollux takes revenge by killing Lynceus, brother of Idas. Zeus intervenes in the dispute and Idas blasts of lightning. But Pollux, inconsolable after the death of his brother, asked his father Zeus to remove him immortality to join his brother in the kingdom of the dead. Touched by so much love, Zeus left his son the opportunity to choose: stay forever young and live among the gods or pass in turn one day in the realm of the dead with Castor and one day in the kingdom of the gods. Yet if he chooses the second option, he would grow old and eventually die. Without any hesitation, Pollux chose the second alternative and lived with his brother between the two kingdoms.
Climbing route : From the refuge, take north on the glacier Felik passing to the right of Felikjoch (4,061m). From here follow the southeast snow to the summit of mount Castor. From the summit follow the ridge towards the secondary top (4,205 m- 13,796 ft), and the western slope joining the pass twins or Zwillingsjoch (3,845 m - 12,615 ft). From the pass, go up the southeast ridge to his left on mixed terrain to reach the summit of Pollux. From the summit the descent is via the southwest ridge on the Verra glacier from which we come to shelters guides Ayas and Mezzalama. Join St Jacques.
The artist
Frédéric Georges Gadmer was born in 1878 in France into a Protestant family; his father, Leon, son of Swiss émigré, was confectioner, and his mother, Marie Georgine, was unemployed. Before World War II, he follows his family in Paris and works as a photographer for the house Vitry, located Quai de la Rapée. As an heliogravure company, it performs work for the sciences and the arts, travel and education. In 1898 Gadmer completed his military service as a secretary to the staff then recalled in 1914 at the time of mobilization. In 1915, he joined the newly created "Photographic Section of the Army" and carried pictures on the front, in the Dardanelles, with General Gouraud, then in Cameroon. In 1919, at age 41, he was hired as a photographer byAlbert Khan for his project called "Archives of the Planet". He finds there his comrades of "the film and photographic section of the army" Paul Castelnau and Fernand Cuville. Soon as he arrived, he made reports in Syria, Lebanon, Turkey and Palestine. It was the first to make a color portrait of Mustafa Kemal, leader of the Young Turks. In 1921, he returned to the Levant with Jean Brunhes, the scientific director of the Archives of the Planet. The same year, he attended General Gouraud, appointed High Commissioner in Syria. Operator and prolific photographer, specializing in distant lands and landscapes, it covers Iraq, Persia, Afghanistan, Algeria and Tunisia. In 1930, he accompanied Father Francis Aupiais in Dahomey. He also works in Europe. In 1931, at the request of Marechal Lyautey, he photographies the Colonial Exhibition. It is one of the last person to leave the "Archives of the Planet" threatened by the Albert Kahn's bankruptcy in 1932. He then worked at the famous french newspaper L'Illustration and carries postcards for Yvon. He died in Paris, unmarried, in 1954 and is buried in Saint-Quentin, as his parents.
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About the Autochrome Lumière Photos
The autochrome is a photographic reproduction of process colors patented December 17, 1903 by Auguste and Louis Lumière french brothers. This is the first industrial technique of photography colors, it produces positive images on glass plates. It was used between 1907 and 1932 approximately an particularly in many pictures of the World War I. A important number of photographs of mountains and landscapes around the world was made with this technique, particularly in the for the Project "The archives of the planet" by Albert Kahn.
