This summer, Louvre Abu Dhabi brings the world to you! Take a journey across continents with some of the earliest photographers and discover the world as your ancestors did: one photograph at a time.
From April 25 to July 13, visitors will explore more than 250 of the earliest photographs in the world, including images from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, India, the Philippines and elsewhere.
Louvre Abu Dhabi’s fourth international exhibition of the cultural season A World of Exchanges, Photographs 1842 – 1896: An Early Album of the World, explores the development of photography in its first years of existence, in a rare display of some of the earliest images taken by travellers and sailors in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, India and the Americas. Running until 13 July 2019, the exhibition traces the dissemination of photography as a form of presentation and documentation, and an instrument of discovering and understanding the world and its people, through a wide selection of over 250 historic photographs taken between 1842 and 1896.
Following the development of photography in the mid-1800s, Western societies eagerly sent European photographers on voyages of exploration, to capture distant civilisations on film for the first time. At the same time, the first international photographers set up their own studios and started to capture their own cultures and landscapes.
This exhibition displays more than 250 of the earliest photographs ever seen of the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the American continents. Believed at the time to be authentic representations of the world, the exhibition explores how nationality, geography, culture, regional politics and the continual improvement of photography techniques influenced both the photographers and these early images – images that helped to shape the perceptions of people, places and cultures more than 150 years ago.
Entrance to the exhibition is free with the museum’s admission ticket. Admission is free for children under the age of 13.
Visitors can tour the exhibition through a multimedia guide that is available in Arabic, English, and French. A catalogue highlighting key historical moments illustrating the circumstances in which photography was introduced and practiced around the world is available.
For more information on the exhibition or ticket bookings, please visit www.louvreabudhabi.ae or call Louvre Abu Dhabi at +971 600 56 55 66.
