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Les origines ([1885-1905)

Joseph de Frenes est d'origine autrichienne.

Le cinématographe (1906-1908)

Alors que Burton Holmes et Oscar Depue se trouvent à Naples, de retour de Grèce, il va faire leur rencontre et se propose pour accompagner le premier lors de ses prises de vues photographiques. Grâce à une lettre de recommandation, il est embauché, peu après, par Charles Urban :

We returned to Naples where I searched for a suitable darkroom in which to develop the Olympic Games pictures. I found a small photographic studio operated by a young Austrian who rented it to me for a few days so that I could set up my portable developing machine. The ashes from Vesuvius were still falling and I had considerable trouble in keeping the films clean.
This young Austrian offered to assist Mr. Holmes in photographing around Naples when it became necessary for me to return to Chicago. He became intensely interested in motion picture work and asked Mr. Holmes how he might go about getting into it on a permanent basis. Mr. Holmes gave him a letter of introduction to Mr. Charles Urban in London. The young man spent several weeks studying English to prepare for the interview, only to find that Mr. Urban spoke German as well as he did.
The young man was hired and in four weeks time absorbed all that the Bioscope Laboratory could teach. 

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DEPUE, 1948: 127-128.

Dès la fin de l'année, il prend part à l'expédition du Cap

au Caire organisée par Charles Urban : 

Then Mr. Urban sent him to South Africa to make motion pictures of the diamond mines at Kimberley and the great Victoria Falls of the Zambesi River. The films that he sent back were excellent in quality; no detail had been overlooked in the taking and packing.

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DEPUE, 1948: 127-128.

Cette expédition est prévue pour durer deux ans :

Cape to Cairo Expedition.
Equipped for two years' travel, the Urban Cape to Cairo expedition arrived at Cape Town by the "Walmer Castle" early in December. Messrs. Brian Bellassis and Lionel Cook are bearers of privileges from the Colonial Offices of several governments, as well as from the Companies and Concessions through whose territories they pass. Their itinerary also includes many divergencies from the actual route. Two member of the expedition are experienced journalists, and their articles will be of service to this country as they appear in the various papers. The operator's task and responsibilities are of no mean order, but Mr. Joseph de Frenes takes with him the enthusiasm of experience, young manhood, and inherited photographic proclivities, and his pictorial records of life in Portuguese East Africa, Nyassaland, The Congo, British and German East Africe [sic], Uganda, &c., will be eagerly welcomed as, from time to time, they are sent home and published. His equipment, necessarily bulky, aroused some curiosity at Waterloo Station, and the expense of transport alone, through many parts of Africa, will be a serious consideration for the enterprising company responsible for the expedition.

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Kinematograph Weekly, samedi 15 décembre 1906, p. 52-53.

"Joseph de Frenes filming canoes on the Zambezi during the Urban-Africa Expedition"
Collection de l'auteur
MCKERNAN, 2013: 64.

Et après... (1909-1969)

En 1910, il Il adhère à la franc-maçonnerie. À l'occasion du Durbar de 1911, il accompagne Charles Urban pour la cérémonie du couronnement :

Urban was so pleased that he sent the young man to India at the time of the Durbar to photograph the processions and ceremonies of the Coronation in Kinema-color-probably the first great event ever photographed in color. I saw these films at the Alhambra in London where they ran for over a year. You may wonder who this young man is.

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DEPUE, 1948: 127-128.

"Charles Urban (centre) with camera team at Delhi. The two nearest camera operators are Albuin Mariner (left) and Joseph de Frenes (right)."
Collection de l'auteur
MCKERNAN, 2013: 101.

Par la suite, Joseph De Frenes se rend aux États-Unis afin de présenter les films en couleur de la Kinemacolor Company :

DEMONSTRATORS GO WEST.
New York, June 24 (Special to The Billboard).-Two men leave the Kinemacolor Company on June 23 to go through the West demonstrating the results obtained in colored films as manufactured by that company. They expect to visit exchanges and exhibitors throught-out the West and acquaint the Western trade colors. Mr. Jos. DeFrene of the Natural Color Kinematograph Company of London, will have charge of the Chicago demonstrating force. Mr. DeFrene is well known in film circles and made the pictures of Queen Victoria's Memorial Ceremonies. The pictures to be demonstrated will contain some of the coronation ones which are being finished and shipped to America as fast as they are taken.

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The Billboard, 1^er juillet 1911, p. 10.

Par la suite, il s'installe outre-Atlantique et poursuit ses voyages : Voyage de Liverpool le 3 octobre 1914, Voyage de Cristobal, c.z. à la Nouvelle-Orléans, le 6 mai 1915, Voyage à Honolulu. 1916. Après la première guerre mondiale (Document militaire 1918), il est recensé à Luzerne (Recensement 1920, Recensement 1930) et à Springfield (Recensement 1940).

Sources

CLEGG Thomas, "The Globe-Trotting Kinematographer", Kinematograph Weekly, jeudi 5 mai 1910, p. 1451-1455.

DEPUE Oscar A., "My first 50 years in motion pictures", American Cinematographer, avril 1948, p. 124-129.

McKERNAN Luke, Charles Urban. Pioneering the Non-Fiction Film in Britain and America. 1897-1925, Exeter, 2013, 244 p.

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