Jean Agelou (1878 – 1921)

Jean was born in 1878 in Alexandria (Egypt) and died in 1921 in Gien (Loiret) Jean’s business was started with selling stereoviews and soon he evolved to selling postcards, which was a great moment for him to step into since postcards were becoming very popular, especially nude photographs. He worked together with his brother Georges Agelou.

The magazine L’Etude Académique was a magazine produced by Jean, these were sold in newsstands in a sealed envelope, and were promoted as being model references. But the main business for Jean became the fully nude, retouched, postcards and deliver those to his clientele at home. He had over 20.000 subsribers. The woman photographed by Jean Agelou were dressed and undressed, his preferences were the ladies who were willing to pose more erotic and nude. His business also involded selling props (like he used in his photographs) and he started his own lingerie line under the mark of GA (Georges Agelou).

There is one model who appeared a lot in Agelou’s photos, she was referred to as Miss Fernande. He also made a lot of photos of Maud d’Orby.
It seems Jean participated in a exhibition just once, with a portrait, a landscape and a nude study. He was well known to many artists and other photographers, they purchased his photos and sold them under their own marks. A car accident ended the life of Jean, he his brother were both killed in this accident.