Photographing the Arab city in the 19th century
Emile Béchard. General view of the Tombs of the Caliphs, Cairo. Plate 14 from the portfolio L’Égypte et la Nubie : Grand Album Monumental, Historique, Architectural. Published 1887. Collotype, 37.5x27.8 cm. CCA Collection PH1979:0613:014
30 January to 25 May 2014
Photographing the Arab city in the 19th century asks the visitor to abandon stereotypes and interpret the traditional Islamic city without the frame of Orientalism. A survey of the CCA Collection showcases early photography of Arab cities and proposes a morphological turn, inspecting panoramas, streets and monuments as material expressions of a complex society rather than elements in a picturesque vision of an exotic Other. The selection of photographs invites the spectator to distinguish between halal, what is public, allowed or profane, and haram , the private, forbidden or sacred. This dichotomy is present at all levels of Islamic culture and thus of the city organization, configuring limits, routes and buildings. From bird’s eye to ground views, from outdoor vistas to interior domains, examining these photographs provides a portrait of an urban reality brought to light one century and half ago but at the time only partially understood. Curated by 2013 Visiting Scholar Jorge Correia, Professor at the School of Architecture, University of Minho (Escola de Arquitectura da Universidade do Minho – EAUM) in Portugal, the exhibition interprets the ways in which the traditional Islamic city was represented by several European photographers including Francis Frith, Emile Béchard, Félix Bonfils and Maxime Du Camp. More than 50 photographs from the CCA’s Collection are presented and displayed as single photographs, detached plates, albums and portfolios, all of which represented major Arab cities of the nineteenth century such as Cairo and Damascus. They are examples of the first photographic printing and dissemination processes, such as salted prints, albumen prints, photo-mechanical prints, lantern slides and stereocards. These images constitute part of an important body of work on the Middle East held at the CCA. Their acquisition dates to the first years of the formation of the CCA Collection (in the 70s and 80s), demonstrating their value and significance for the institution.
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