Durandelle and his partner, Hyacinthe Cés Delamaet (Delmaet died in 1862; his widow married Durandelle and served as business partner) specialized in construction photographs. Throughout the 1860s the firm photographed views of houses and buildings in Paris; the rebuilding of the Hôtel-Dieu in 1868; the Commune in 1870-1871; views of Mont-Saint-Michel, the Bibliothèque Nationale, Sacré Couer in the 1870; and the construction of the Eiffel Tower in 1887-1889. Durandelle stopped photographing in 1890.