[1][2] His images reached notoriety when he took pictures of massacred Africans,[3] in some cases arranging the scenes for photographic effect.

[3] Later, he acted as an organizer of "black villages" or human zoos at the colonial exhibitions in Lyon in 1894,[4][5] Paris in 1895,[5] and Rouen in 1896.

[3] He took several views of piled-up or decapitated corpses of "supposed fugitives from the enemy army", probably for the private albums of the soldiers.

[1][6] While this newspaper was usually "not very critical of colonial policy", its editors published his photos in controversial article entitled The Work of Civilization in Africa on April 11, 1891.

[3][1] Among those images were pictures from Bakel and from Nioro (where Emporer Amadhu had set his capital during a war for succession with his brothers.