 He started his career in the company he founded together with his mother in 1889, which produced photographic paper according to traditional methods.In 1894, he founded the company Gevaert & Co, which in 1920, was transformed to N.V Gevaert Photo-producten, merged in 1964 with Agfa AG to become Gevaert-Agfa NV and later Agfa-Gevaert NV.Already at an early age, he felt socially responsible and wanted to advance the status of Dutch in Belgium.