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Magazine
RETROSPECT
Wonderful world of Albert Kahn
A. RANGARAJAN
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Albert Kahn’s The Archives of the Planet, photos and films commissioned in the early decades of the 20th century, sought to preserve the world’s rich cultural diversity. Across time, they tell unique stories of a world gone by. The museum will be conducting a special India exposition titled ‘Infinitely India’ from June 2008 to March 2009.
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Kahn commissioned about 15 photographers and cameramen to travel across the continents to produce this singular Atlas of Cultural Ecology.
Photo: Stéphane PassEt; Autochrome: Auguste Léon
Slices of history: A Pundit under a portico in the Jain temple of Hathi Singh, Ahmedabad, December 1913 (left), Photo: Stéphane PassEt; Rabindranath Tagore in the rose garden at the Albert Kahn Gardens, June 1921, Autochrome: Auguste Léon
In the outskirts of Paris, in a quite suburb called Boulogne-Billancourt stands a four-hectare wooded garden. And housed in those sylvan surroundings is a rare collection of photographs, autochromes and silent movie rushes that have documented, not j
ust extensively, but poetically as well, the lives of peoples from over 50 countries spanning the momentous years of the early part of the 20th century, from 1909 to 1931. These telling images and poignant pictures transport you to a world and an era that has gone by. Predicting and perhaps even fearing that the disappearance of the rich cultural diversity of world’s peoples in the face of modernity, heralded by colonialism and capitalist enterprise, was but a matter of time, Albert Kahn, the moving spirit and visionary behind this remarkable collection, had embarked on a project which he had come to call Archives de la Planéte or The Archives of the Planet.
A slice of world’s memory
Born in 1860 in the Alsace region of France and having made his fortune through Banking and other enterprises, Albert Kahn decided to finance photographers, cameramen, equipment, labs and all the wherewithal needed to realise this dream. About 15 photographers and cameramen travelled across the continents to produce this singular Atlas of Cultural Ecology. Each of those frozen frames and silent images speak a story of temporal transience. There lies a precious slice of the memory of the world!
Some 4,000 stereoscopic plaques, 72,000 autochromes and 1,83,000 metres of film, amounting to more than 100 hours of screening time at the Albert Kahn collection, today receive about 70,000 visitors annually. The visitors come not only to see the images through a special computer programme aided access but they also spend time in the adjoining gardens. The gardens themselves are another project in Utopia that Albert Kahn embarked upon like the rest of his. There are English, Japanese and French gardens in the enclave. The gardens reflected Albert Kahn’s idealism that all cultures can coexist in an atmosphere of respect and harmony. In his time, princes, queens, statesmen, philosophers and eminent people walked these gardens as Kahn’s distinguished guests, pondering on the making of a better world. Albert Kahn funded Chairs at Universities, provided for Travel scholarships for young graduates and founded various political and intellectual circles while as many as 14 publications were patronised by him. Some of the great minds of the time came together inspired by Kahn’s ideals and formed the group known as the “Autour du Monde” and these included Albert Einstein, Auguste Rodin, Henri Bergson, Rudyard Kipling and Rabindranath Tagore. At a time when Europe was simmering and seething with suspicion and self interest, Kahn, as an Internationalist, was way ahead of his time.
The cine film sections include rare footage on the extreme hardship faced by workers in the French fishing fleets where infections and amputations were all too common. These hardy men laboured day after day with very little sleep while surviving on abysmally low quantities of fresh water for months on end.
Rare footage
Elsewhere you see the cine documentation of the place of pride and honour accorded to the European gypsies at the ceremonies and processions at the Saintes Maries de la Mer. Gypsies would gather in large numbers at this venerated chapel — legend has it that it is at this site in the Camarague region of France that the three Maries along with their Egyptian companion Sarah landed after the crucifixion of Christ bringing the Christian faith to Europe. Sarah is the patron saint of the Roma Gypsies. While today the gypsies in Europe face prejudice and scorn, clearly during the interwar years they, as revealed in these celluloid archives, were treated as equal citizens of Europe. Even more revealing are the images from North Africa and the Near East shot during the years of colonial consolidation in the region. Albert Kahn’s cinematographers have captured on film the street plays and performances which ridicule the French presence while the most pungent of satires is seen to be reserved for the native collaborators of the foreigners. Women and men in the countryside are seen working as equals in these predominantly Islamic societies. The throes of these societies in transition on account of changes imposed by colonial structures that showed little understanding of local sensitivities are carefully documented as well, making it a rare study of cultural anthropology.
For their part, the autochromes live up faithfully to the adage that a picture is worth a thousand words. From Morocco to Mongolia, from Bosnia to Bombay and from Bassrah to Beijing these stills mesmerise you. These masterly prints were created using an early technique of colour photography known as “autochromes”. Starch from potatoes was compressed on to an autochrome plate that helped produce transparencies that captured the true hues of the objects. The autochrome technique faded out after the advent of the colour film. Many of these autochrome images lend themselves to stereoscopic viewing. Albert Kahn’s photographers visited India during two photographic expeditions that were 15 years apart. One in 1913 and the other in 1927/28, captured the fascination and contradictions of the land. Out of these images, sannaysins and swordsmen and maharajahs and mendicants stare at us from British India. A special and major featured exhibition of photos and films from India will start on June 17, 2008 and will go on till March 8, 2009 at the Albert Kahn Museum and it will be titled “Infiniment Indes (Infinitely India)”. Every now and then a thematic exposition is put up at the museum. The one that just concluded after having nearly been on show for the last two years was called “Colours of the Maghreb”. Movie rushes and stills form Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia were on display, attracting large crowds.
This idealist enterprise of the creation of a photographic atlas of the world came to an abrupt end a few years before the Second World War which started changing the cartographic atlas of the world. Following the great depression and crash of the stock markets, Albert Kahn went bankrupt in 1930. The project ground to a halt and Europe would see the rise of the Nazi power. Thereafter, the Second World War broke out and France was eventually occupied by Hitler’s forces. And on November 14, 1940, in the year of the occupation, Albert Kahn died in his house just before the Nazi’s entered it to apprehend him for being a Jew. Learning of his death they left his home leaving behind all the films and prints untouched! They survived the ravages of war quite miraculously to tell their unique stories to us.
Pacifist vision
Standing at the edge of the Japanese garden, one can see the roof of Albert Kahn’s house. One wonders at the life of this remarkable man. After moving to Paris, he rose from being a modest bank empoyee to becoming a wealthy banker himself. And even after his wealth was wiped out, he left behind a rich legacy that is considered truly priceless. Perhaps the brutalities witnessed in the Franco- Prussian war of Albert Kahn’s boyhood in his home region of Alsace-Lorraine awakened the early pacifist in him and shaped his view and vision of the world. Drawn by the dreams of a pacifist, he tried engaging with the elite of the day, hoping to shape the course of events towards the realisation of these ideals and that of a better world. Soon after his death, once again a big war would devastate the earth and yet again Reality would eclipse Utopia. Looking at the people who now throng the gardens at Boulogne-Billancourt, one feels reassured that hope is eternal in the human breast.
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All photos © Archives de la Planète, Musée Albert Kahn, Département des Hauts de Seine. Used with permission.
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