REVIEW | The Wondeful Wolrd Of Albert Khan
February 11th 2010 16:11
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The Wondeful Wolrd Of Albert Khan
REVIEW | The Wondeful Wolrd Of Albert Khan
This is simply one of the most fascinating programs I've seen in a while. With an extraordinary calling, to document the world through photographs, Albert Khan created a most exciting collection of images.
I suppose it's the fact that as one's life goes on, and change continually evolves, it is really quite fascinating to see how things were. Khan's pictures were taken at what seems like the dawn of time. The first world war, second world war and beyond are some of the amazing moments in time captured by Khan's photographers. A banker, and a somewhat camera shy chap himself, Albert Khan sent photographers around the world to get pictures of as many of the worlds cultures as possible. Consequently he amassed an enormous collection of the most awesome images.
Wikipedia.org says... In 1909 Kahn travelled to Japan on business and returned with many photographs of the journey. This prompted him to begin a project collecting a photographic record of the entire Earth. He appointed Jean Brunhes as the project director and sent photographers to every continent to record images of the planet using the first colour photography, autochrome plates, and early cinematography. Between 1909 and 1931 they collected 72,000 colour photographs and 183,000 meters of film. These form a unique historical record of 50 countries, known as "The Archives of the Planet".
A variety of academics comment on each of the stages of his work, and talk about the collection with due respect.
It's one of those BBC docco's that I missed on television myself. Possibly it was seen in Australia on the ABC channel, I don't know. The music accompanying the images is very beautiful and the graphic finishing of the program is slick, as you'd expect.
His interest to photographers extends into the circumstances of his collection; these photographs were the earliest color pictures taken. The process of capturing realistic color involved powdering potato, colouring it and using it to create the photographic print: "autochrome - the world's first user-friendly photographic system capable of taking true colour pictures".
Kahn's photographers began documenting France in 1914, just days before the outbreak of World War I, and by liaising with the military managed to record both the devastation of war, and the struggle to continue everyday life and agricultural work.
I love the still images shown, certainly not the whole collection, but many of them. The motion picture footage is what truly transports one back into the day.
Since 1986 the photographs have been collected into a museum at 14, Rue du Port, Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris, at the site of his garden. It is now a French national museum and includes four hectares of gardens, as well as the museum which houses his historic photographs and film.
This is simply one of the most fascinating programs I've seen in a while. With an extraordinary calling, to document the world through photographs, Albert Khan created a most exciting collection of images.
I suppose it's the fact that as one's life goes on, and change continually evolves, it is really quite fascinating to see how things were. Khan's pictures were taken at what seems like the dawn of time. The first world war, second world war and beyond are some of the amazing moments in time captured by Khan's photographers. A banker, and a somewhat camera shy chap himself, Albert Khan sent photographers around the world to get pictures of as many of the worlds cultures as possible. Consequently he amassed an enormous collection of the most awesome images.
Wikipedia.org says... In 1909 Kahn travelled to Japan on business and returned with many photographs of the journey. This prompted him to begin a project collecting a photographic record of the entire Earth. He appointed Jean Brunhes as the project director and sent photographers to every continent to record images of the planet using the first colour photography, autochrome plates, and early cinematography. Between 1909 and 1931 they collected 72,000 colour photographs and 183,000 meters of film. These form a unique historical record of 50 countries, known as "The Archives of the Planet".
A variety of academics comment on each of the stages of his work, and talk about the collection with due respect.
It's one of those BBC docco's that I missed on television myself. Possibly it was seen in Australia on the ABC channel, I don't know. The music accompanying the images is very beautiful and the graphic finishing of the program is slick, as you'd expect.
His interest to photographers extends into the circumstances of his collection; these photographs were the earliest color pictures taken. The process of capturing realistic color involved powdering potato, colouring it and using it to create the photographic print: "autochrome - the world's first user-friendly photographic system capable of taking true colour pictures".
I love the still images shown, certainly not the whole collection, but many of them. The motion picture footage is what truly transports one back into the day.
Since 1986 the photographs have been collected into a museum at 14, Rue du Port, Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris, at the site of his garden. It is now a French national museum and includes four hectares of gardens, as well as the museum which houses his historic photographs and film.
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