In 1853, Durieu worked with Delacroix on a series of photographs of different male and female nude models.
On 15 November 1854, Henri Victor Regnault founded the French Société française de photographie (SFP), one of the earliest photographic societies in the world, and was its president.
Regnault wanted to see notable individuals with strong scientific expertise in fields such as chemistry, physics, optics, photographic techniques in positions of the association, on the basis that the scientific component is an important aspect of photography.
Between 1854 and 1855, Durieu played a key role in the organisation of the association; and other notables involved included Olympe Aguado, Hippolyte Bayard, Alexandre Edmond Becquerel, Edmond Fierlants [fr], Jean-Baptiste Louis Gros, and Gustave Le Gray.
Durieu presented his whole set of photographs, calotypes and daguerreotypes made between 1853 and 1856, of male and female nude models to the Société française de photographie in 1857, describing them as "portraits and studies from nature".