Photography, Film and New Media

In this section of sessions we'll examine the rise of photography in the 19th century and its lasting influence on  film and new media.

Historic Photographs from Beckenham, England (near London)

A very useful site on the history of Beckenham, England is found at http://www.beckenhamhistory.co.uk/.

Beckenham was close to the munitions factories that the British constructed during the First World War at Arsenal.

It was also close to other unique and important modern milestones in the London area, including the Chrystal Palace, one of the hallmarks of modernist architecture. You'll find a useful gallery of local historic photographs with links to their galleries.  Especially helpful are the galleries on the Chrystal Palace, the great architectural project of the architect John Paxton that debuted at the international exhibition of 1851 and survived until 1936 when it was engulfed by fire.

Here is a link to a gallery of historic images of the Chrystal Palace.

Figure 1.  Phillip Henry Delamatote, Crystal Palace General view from Water Temple, (1854).  Calotype photograph print made from a paper negative, in a process developed from about 1839.

Figure 2. Phillip Henry Delamotte, Upper Gallery of the Chrystal Palace, (1853-1854)  Calotype black and white photograph. 

See the discussion of Delamotte in Russell R. Brettell, Modern Art, 1851-1929. (Oxford, 1999), pp. 1 - 4.

The Photographs of Kamil Chadirji 1897-1968

Kamil Chadirji (1897-1968) was a prominent photographer and Iraqi.  Chadirji's photographs are especially useful in that they provide insight into institutions that were functioning in the 1930s in Baghdad.  There is a dedicated collection to some of his photographs at the Archnet Digital Archive.  Chadirji was a politician and leader of the National Democratic Party in Iraq until 1960, when opposition was suppressed. 

1. What do these photographs reveal about the priority of important social and cultural institutions in Iraq in the 1930s? 
2. How does Chadirji frame the subject to provide emphasis on their importance or function? 

Rifat Chadirji's The Photography of Kamil Chadirji: Social Life in the Middle East, 1920-1940,(London: I.B. Tauris, 1995) is a useful catalogue and study of his photographs of Iraqi life in the 1920s and 1930s.  

Figure 1.  Kamil Chadirji, Awqaf Public Library, North Gate (Destroyed) Black and white photograph. (1932) 
Source:  Archnet Digital Archives

Figure 2.  Kamil Chadirji, Primary Teachers College, Baghdad, Iraq, (1934).
Black and  white photograph.  Source:  Archnet Digital Archives

The relation of art and photography: examples from Palestine

Surrender of Jerusalem to the British Battalion, Sunday 9th of December 1917

Source of Photograph:  Kamal Boullata, Palestinian Art:  1850 to the Present, (p. 116)

Nicola Saig, Husseini Surrender, c. 1918

Source of Photograph:  Kamal Boullata, Palestinian Art:  1850 to the Present, (p. 117)

The relation of art and photography: examples from Tunisia

French colonial colored postcard photograph of the Bey at the Bardo Palace in Tunis (19th c.)

Ahmed 'Usman, oil painting of Ahmed Bey (r. 1833-1855) c. 19th century.

 Source:  Ali Louati, Al-fann al-tashkili fi tunis.  (Tunis, 1997)