2023-06-05 17:45:10
What do we know about the beginnings of photography outside of Europe and the United States? From this question, the two researchers in charge of the Quai-Branly photography collections, Christine Barthe and Annabelle Lacour, gave birth to this fascinating exhibition “Opening the album of the world. Photographs 1842-1911” (1). A journey of nearly three hundred works from the five continents, mainly from the museum’s collection, which allows you to follow the trajectories of the new medium of recording the world and to discover pioneering photographers from Africa, Iran, from India, China or Japan.
Elite ownership
A chronological fresco opens the route, which lays the groundwork for the diffusion of photography throughout the world, with regard to colonial expansion. Because from the invention of the medium, the territorial conquest is accompanied by a visual conquest. It was from 1839, with the donation by France of the technique perfected by Daguerre, that the new medium was to spread to the four corners of the planet. In the wake of scientific or military expeditions, archaeological, diplomatic or religious missions, photographic cameras are embarked on ships bound for the ends of the world.
Faced with the lens, the reactions are diverse: perplexity, distrust, curiosity or enthusiasm, depending on the local sensitivity to the image. In Iran, India, Thailand or Ethiopia, the royal courts and the elites quickly appropriated it, soon creating the titles of official photographer. Introduced to photography in 1842, the Shah of Iran established a royal photography studio in 1858 inside the Golestan Palace in Tehran.
Local histories and self-images
With the improvement of the technique of reproducing a positive image from a negative, photography will experience a tremendous boom in production and distribution. From 1850, many commercial studios settled in the big cities. Some productions are inspired by anthropology and perpetuate stereotypes, such as the portraits of Aborigines intended to be sold in the form of albums and taken around 1870 by the German photographer John William Lindt living in New South Wales.
Others do not give in to the temptation of exoticism. At the same time, in her studio in Auckland, Elizabeth Pulman, New Zealand’s first female photographer, produced magnificent portraits of Maoris, for example, with their active participation.
Geography of gazes
In the center of the exhibition, a huge interactive planisphere allows you to visualize the worldwide dissemination of photography and its chronology, which varies according to the region. West Africa is experiencing a particular boom, favored by the return of former freed slaves who are opening studios in Monrovia, Freetown, Lagos, Libreville or Accra. Photographers like JP Decker or Francis W. Joaque also practice their art in an itinerant way, along the coasts. Beyond their beauty, these images bear witness to a desire to reclaim representations.
But it is on a forbidden image that the course ends. That of the Snake Dance ceremony in pueblo territory in New Mexico, which we will not see. An absence that opens up an ethical questioning, still current, on the conditions of production and circulation of images, as well as on their purpose.
An exceptional historical collection
Made up of more than 700,000 photographs, the Musée du Quai-Branly’s photography collection covers the entire period in which photography was used, from 1842 to the present day.
A reference collection for the history of the representation of Asia, Africa, South America and Oceania, it was initially formed by bringing together the two historical collections of the Musée de l’homme and the Musée des arts of Africa and Oceania. Since 2006, acquisitions of old photographs, but also of contemporary photographic creations, have regularly enriched it.
#QuaiBranly #footsteps #unknown #pioneers #photography