Photography was born in France but moving from one continent to another, it came to be imbued with various influences. According to Manuel Rabate, Director of The Louvre Abu Dhabi, an exhibition that traces the earliest photographs of the world, fits perfectly into its narrative. “Louvre Abu Dhabi is a connected story of art from the beginning of humanity to the contemporary time,” says Rabate, in his French-accented English, sitting at his office in The Louvre Abu Dhabi, an architectural marvel designed by Jean Nouvel.
So around 250 rare images taken by photographers in different parts of the world, but made mostly outside Europe, come together in “Photographs 1842-1986: An Early Album of the World” curated by Christine Barthe, Head of the Photographic Collections Heritage Unit at the Musee du Quan Branly - Jacques Chirac, to present the story of photography in its earliest years.
A gift to the world
The French consider photography as their gift to the world and the story unfolds like this: By 1843, two French inventors Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre and Joseph-Nicephore Niepce had developed a process through which moving images could be captured permanently in camera obscura. It was called Daguerreotype. The French government announced the development to the public in January 1839. It acquired the rights to the process from two innovators in exchange of lifelong pensions. In August 1839, the government removed the patent and the details of the process was shared publicly.
The gift was used by travellers, sailors, traders in countries like Mexico, Egypt, Ethiopia, Philippines, Lima, China, Nepal, Algeria and our very own India for the purposes of documentation.
Today in a new context and situation, the exhibition is an attempt to show to the world how “a technological medium became a global medium,” as Manuel puts it.
Some rare gems on display
There really are some rare frames, unseen images, unique moments and extraordinary processes on display. The works like the first photographs of Medina and Mecca clicked in 1881 by Muhammad Sadiq Bey, an assemblage of two albumen prints of pre-Hispanic sites in Mexico by Claude Joseph Le Desire Charnay, photographs of monuments taken during his voyage to Egypt, Nubia (present day Sudan) and Palestine don’t just provide visual stimuli, but also open new chapters for the viewers.
Philip Henry Egerton’s albumen prints made in 1860s depict the vast landscapes of Kangra Valley, Kullu, Lahaul Spiti and Bara Shigri Glacier. He was the deputy commissioner of Kangra Valley when he took these photographs, searching for the alternative routes for the wool trade from India to Tibet.
The progressive nature of Algerian Emir Abd-el-Kader, a military and religious leader comes to light in his portraits made by Jacques Phillipe Potteau, Abdullah Brothers and Gustave Le Gray in 1800s. Abd-el-Kader was one of the few Islamic scholars at that time to have accepted photography. The section on portraits appear quite robust with several intriguing images from Colombia, Tehran, Peru, Gabon and Ethiopia. In fact, it is the portrait of a young woman from Ethiopia shot by Jules Borelli sometime between 1885 and 1888 which adorns the promotional material of the show.
Pedro Picon is an interesting discovery in this section for he is credited with creation of the earliest photographs in Philppines.
While daguerreotypes is associated with the birth of photography, it was calotypes or talbotype which paved the way for the medium in its existing form.
Barthe has included some brilliant examples of calotype in the show. Frederic Auguste Bartholdi’s calotypes depicting houses and other structure in Lebanon, Yemen and Aden where he sailed alone are considered very different.
“If this process wasn’t discovered, photography would have taken a different route altogether. Calotype gives you a negative which can give you many positives but daguerreotype is one final image. William Talbot discovered it which is why it is also called talbotype,” says Aditya Arya, photographer and visual historian Aditya Arya, who is also building India’s first museum of the photographic arts in Gurugram.
Back home it was Lala Deen Dayal who was making waves with his photography. He worked as the court photographer to the Nizams in Hyderabad, photographer to the viceroy of India and even Queen Victoria. By 1890s he was capturing the India’s princely class like never before. The show includes a portrait of Pratap Singh, Maharaja of Orchha taken in 1882 and a view of a street in Bombay. Orchha, a city in Madhya Pradesh well-known for its heritage, is misspelt as ‘Orchla’ in the caption.
It’s possible for the wrong spelling to have crept in right at the time of picture being made by the photographer.
All the images in the exhibition have come from Musee du Quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, Musee d’Orsay, Bibliotheque Nationale de France and Musee National des Arts Asiatiques - Guimet, Societe de Geographie and Cite de la Ceramique - Sevres & Limoges besides a few from Louvre Abu Dhabi’s own collection.
Raising questions
After taking the viewers through the journey of photography, Barthe ends the exhibition with some questions that remain relevant. The pictures taken in the Pueblo Native American lands raises concerns about the intrusion of camera. As cameras reached these unexplored places, the men behind the shutter grew fascinated with the ceremonies practised by the communities. But as the communities grew aware of how these rituals like the Hopi Snake Dance Ceremony supposed to be performed secretly, has reached public domain, they imposed restrictions on photography.
Though the picture of snake dance taken by George Wharton James hasn’t been shown, the pages from his album where James has taken the picture of some important local leaders of the community without permission ends the show. “I am raising some questions. I don’t have all the answers," says Barthe.
(The exhibition “Photographs 1842-1986: An Early Album of the World” is on at The Louvre Abu Dhabi, Saadiyat Island, till July 13. For more details visit www.louvreabudhabi.ae)