Le Maréchal Mustafa Kemal, Angora, Turquie, 29 décembre 1922, (Autochrome,) Frédéric Gadmer, A 37 090 S
Photography has a rich history and by its nature, it spans the entire world. I stumbled on a branch of this rich history and learned about Albert Kahn whose generosity allows us to enjoy over 70,000 autochrome plates from all corners of the world, well, most corners!
Autochrome Color
The autochrome process was invented by the Lumière brothers in 1903 to record the scenes in color. One of the ingredients of the process was potatoes! Yes, potatoes. Potato starch processed down to a quarter the diameter of a human hair and died in red-orange, green, and blue-violet created the color layer under a layer of B&W coating. Unlike the regular glass plates which are inserted with the emulsion side towards the lens, autochrome plates were inserted with the glass side towards the lens and exposed. On the right is a greatly magnified autochrome plate color layer. You can read more about the autochrome process on Wikipedia.
Albert Kahn
A wealthy philanthropist Albert Kahn commissioned the project, The Archives of the Planet that would span the years 1909 – 1931 and produce 72,000 color photographs from fifty countries. He traveled to Japan and produced his own body of work. But the bulk of the photographs is the result of the work of the hired photographic team.
The Archives of the Planet
I have gone through the collection segment covering Turkey with close to 2,000 photographs. Some are still identifiable, but many remain unique views of a bygone era. Even those I could identify look different now in a vastly different context. If you wish to explore the Archives of the Planet, keep in mind that it is in French, but the interface offers a robust structure that makes the search or browsing easy. There is a map view that shows the locations with photographs, then the viewer, as well as an option “Imagery” which I used for my study of the collection, and the link above will start you there.
Below are photographs from The Archives of the Planet that presents a small selection from a small section of the collection. They are presented in alphabetical and date order. Some came with rich embedded EXIF information with captions and others did not, due to the way I downloaded them. The photographs appear as they have been downloaded with no editing although they can be improved with some.
Enjoy the Archives of the Planet fragment below, thank Albert Kahn, and visit the site to explore even more. All photographs are from Département des Hauts-de-Seine, musée Albert-Kahn, Archives de la Planète, with much appreciation.
You can see the photograph of Hagia Irene Church in the second photograph in the last row. Compare that to the one among my collections from the roof of Hagia Sophia, interestingly at the same location, last row, second photograph.
Haluk Atamal
Almost unbelievable. Thanks Cemal.
This is probably the last time I will write anything here. Even though I check the box below, your answers to my comments remain in the secret. No mails arrive :(
Cemal Ekin
Good morning Haluk, glad you enjoyed the collection. I’m sure you noticed the Antalya member of the parliament too. Following a small lead from a book proved to be very worth while and I learned about Kahn and his archive.
Regarding the response to the comments, I had no idea, I will look into it. You probably checked your junk mail folder.
Take care,
Cemal
Binnaz Melin
I am most impressed and moved Cemal. Our home town, with its monuments, our greatest leader Mustafa Kemal and his friends are all there! It is a must for all my ex-students and colleagues to study your site very carefully. I am proud of you. We all owe you thanks for discovering Albert Khan.
Cemal Ekin
It is hard not to be impressed by Kahn’s archives Binnaz. What I shared is a small tip of the huge iceberg of a collection. Thank you for your kind words.
Cemal