Photography in Iran Early Photography in Iran

Photography in Iran

Early Photography in Iran

Paintings and photography started in Persia just like any other country i.e. slowly but there was a huge difference in the timeline. When paintings and art were highly appreciated and exhibitions were held in Europe, the Persian painting and photography had just started its journey. There are only few portraits and photos available from Iranian history because the world did not know of great painters and photographers of the country. Also, the early Persian painters faced the problem of theft of paintings. Thus their master pieces are saved in the history by the name of some other European artists. The Persian artists slowly and gradually grew in expertise from painting sceneries and flowers initially and then the human portraits. The initial portraits are of royal or soldier men and the European women. The local women were, in beginning, illustrated only doing household tasks.

Paintings and Photography

Paintings appeal all the souls but photography always starts as the taste of the elites of society. The early Persian illustrations are based on the images of travelers, armies and the Shahs that ruled the country in eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Initially, the patterns of painting in the area were simple and complex floral designs and sceneries. The people used to shade using paints and colors and the camera was used in 20th century. There is not enough literature available on the Persian art. Some of the resources are discussed here to find the history of art and painting in Persia and to hunt the initial painters and photographers and to find what contributions they made.

Floor, William

Art (naqqashi) and artists (naqqasham) in Qajar Persia

1999

The Qajar or visual art was found in Iran but it only had appreciation in the Royal families (Floor, 125). There was less appreciation of Iranian art in the literature. Floor discusses that initially the Persian people had interaction with paintings and illustrations through the magazines and paintings brought by Europeans. The early Persian paintings were naqqashi that illustrated small scale works. People made drawing, plans and portraits. One of the earliest portrait paintings in Iran was of Nasir al-Din Shah's portrait by Armenian artist Akop Ovnatanian (Floor, 127). Nasir was himself a painter and he used to paint trees, bushes and water. Nasir was not only a painter but also a portrait maker. On the demand of other Shah's in Persia to make portraits, Nasir uttered that he could make the portraits of people that were not present since he had their portrait in his mind. Nasir was thus a very talented early painter and photographer of Persia whose skills are discussed in the limited literature on Iranian art.

The portraits were not common in the country initially. The people knew more about drawing, ink drawing, oil painting, panorama paintings and flower paintings. This can also be attributed to the religious orientation of the people. There were no formal painting schools in Iran initially and thus the initial painters including Mirza Baba and Mihr Ali cannot be considered as Tehrani or Isfahani (Floor, 129). The early paintings showed women of Irani and European origin. These were not sort of models but women working in house carrying water and also often women milking cows (Floor, 137). In the beginning, the Persian photographers included few big names like court painter Aqa Mirza Ismai'l Jalayir, Mirza BabaMirza Musa, and Haji Mirza Hasan.

Bindad, Ali

Sevruguin: Orientalist or orienteur?

1999

Ali says that he found only a little about Persian art in the literature. The Iranian paintings make a person nostalgic especially to those that understand the history and Royal past of the country. Sevruguin, as a pioneer artist, is found complaining in literature that several of his paintings were used by European painters under their own names (Bindad, 81). It was not the problem he was facing alone but many of other artists also used to send their portraits in hands of tourists that finally sold the paintings with their own names.

The Persian paintings illustrated sceneries and buildings primarily. There were also paintings of lifestyle of royal families and the royal buildings. But with the advent of European artists and with the local artists traveling outside, the region learned the art of painting and portraying humans. Soon it became very popular and the portraits of the members of royal families were made. From individual to group photos, the Persians learned that it was a very hard task to use the paints and the same was easy through the use of cameras. Although the cameras were not much facilitated by then, the result was much more accurate than the handmade paintings. The development of photos was however an art that required some great hands.

Through trade, Persia was connected to several different parts of the world and that is also evident from the paintings. Many buildings were constructed on a mixed European and Persian style. The European influence on Persia and the Persian influence on the East European construction are evident in Hammerschmidt's photographs (Bindad, 82). The camera was a tool that saved a few episodes of history for the people to come and also the knowledge of Europe assisted, along with cameras, in saving the histroy. Although there is not enough material present on the lives of common people of East through pictures, yet a researcher can get idea of how deep has painting and photography penetraed in East and what appreciation did it receive. The finding would be that the paintings (oil, flower or portraits) were most depictive of Royal life and armies and less of the common people. Ali Bindad shares that the early common paintings in Persia were about the panoramic view of the cities. In this regard he shares the photograph of Tiberias lake by Frith (Bindad, 84). Photographis like the panoramic views share the outsider's perspective of the land. It only offers an image of how the area looked like rather than shedding light on the lifestyle of people living there. The early depiction of women in paintings was of those Persian women in harems. The ordinary women, Ali says, were photographed in veils. The earlier orientalist artists that worked on photographs of Iranian women include Eugene Delacroix, Jean Leon Gerome and Jean Auguste (Bindad, 87).

Sheikh, Reza

Portfolio of a nation

1999

Many of the early paintings of Persia were those showing the religious or cultural practices of the people. For example, Antoin Servuguin was a photographer who often took the photos of people around the Mosques (Sheikh, 55). He also focused on taking the photos that were about the rural and urban architecture. He used to work within and outside the studio to explore the Iranian culture. His pictures narrate that it was an era of modernization in Iran. Since the transport was not that quick by then, he used to send his pictures, paintings and photographs to Europe and America through travelers to introduce Iran to the west. Sheikh says that the work of Servuguin can narrate the history and transformation of the country. He took different pictures in different times that can be put into sequence to find the transformation of Tehran from a medieval culture to the modern city (Sheikh, 58).

The depiction of power and elegance is evident in the pictures whereby the royal and military personnel are painted in their arrogant moods. Servuguin also saved some pictures of Christian families in Iran. The family belonging to Nestorian sect Christians is found in photographs telling how they used to maintain their identities while living in Persia (Sheikh, 69). Even today, many European churches keep the rare pictures of Christian families that lived in Iran in eighteenth and nineteenth century.

Servuguin is not considered as one of most talented early painters and photographers of Iran because of his historical and architectural illustrations alone. He also took special interest in the street life of people. Thus, while he was not the first one to paint Persia, he was certainly among the pioneers that focused on painting the street life of people of Persia like the luggage bearers and the venders in street (Sheikh, 73).

The history of photography in Iran tells that the artificial lights were not used in photography in Persia until 1880s (Sheikh, 74). Most of the photographs and pictures until that time were taken in sunlight and there are rarely any pictures taken indoors. From wrestlers to medical personalities to the textile workers, everybody was photographed outside walls to take advantage of the sunlight.

Bohrer, Frederick

Looking through photographs: Sevruguin and the Persian image

1999

Frederick says that Antoin Sevruguin remained unknown for decades while his paintings and photographs were very famous in the galleries of Europe (Bohrer, 33). The photographs he took of the buildings, currency and walls of that time show that other than the symbolic paintings of lions and horses, the generally accepted painting pattern was of flowers and not humans. However, the influential families did not only allowed painters and photographers to take their pictures but also let them take pictures of their families, women and children.

The sequence of the photographs shows that the photography was initially done without artificial light. There were although many painters that did a great job with colors, most of the paintings were black and white. The pattern and inflow of technology tells that the local painters and photographs were influenced by the foreigners. Like the European travelers to Persia, there were also some Persian travelers to Europe like Nasir al-Din who were inspired by the overlapping western and eastern cultures (Bohrer, 36). Thus the modern photography of the Persian culture is only about using modern ways of photography but also picturing how the architecture and lives of the area changed under the European influence.

Corien, Yuurman and Theo Martens

Photographic print processes

1999

It was quite late that the world 'discovered' the painting and photography related history of Persia. The photographic technology was imported to Iran through the travelers and tourists. Sevruguin was one of early traveler photographers in Iran. The travelers collected most of the paintings of the fellow travellers. Given the fact that women did not use to travel so often, women were not very common in early paintings.

The early photographers had to sell their paintings to the travellers since they could not themselves travel too often. These early photographers include Felix Bonfils, Antoine Beato, J. Pascal Sebah and Antoin Servuguin (Corien, Yuurman and Martens, 20). Their paintings were less about the natural beauty of the land and more about the modern aspects of the culture. This can be probably because the people have been making paintings of landscape for centuries but the potraits were new to them. Jules Richard is considered one of the initial figures in the history of photography in Persia. He died in late nineteenth century. The major illustrations of Richard were all sold out and rarely any survived (Corien, Yuurman and Martens, 20).