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Qajar (Abdullah Mizra) album of Iran
2021.R.15
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Title: Abdullah Mirza Qajar album of Iran
Date (inclusive): between 1883 and
1896
Number: 2021.R.15
Creator/Collector:
Qajar, Abdullah Mizra, 1850-1909
Physical Description:
1.5 Linear Feet
(61 photographs in 1 album)
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Special Collections
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles 90049-1688
Business Number: (310) 440-7390
Fax Number: (310) 440-7780
reference@getty.edu
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref
(310) 440-7390
Abstract: An album of 61 albumen photographs of
Iran taken by Abdullah Mirza Qajar between 1883 and 1896. Although there are a few
bird's-eye views of Tehran and some images of Qajar buildings, the photographs primarily
depict buildings in ruins or disrepair located near towns and villages or in isolated
settings. Locales present in the album include Kerman, Khurāsān, Qom, Ray, Dāmghān, Bāstāan,
Qazvīn, Ribat-ī Machi, and Radkan.
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Language: Collection material is in
No linguistic content; Not applicable
.
Abdullah Mirza Qajar (1850-1909), the son of Jahangir Mirza Qajar and the grandson of
Fath'ali Shāh Qajar, was member of the royal family of Iran. After attending Dār ul-Funun
polytechnic school, Iran's first institution of higher learning, Qajar was sent to Paris
around 1878 by the school's director who was also the Iranian minister of Science, Commerce,
and the Arts, to complete his training in photography. He followed his year-and-a-half in
Paris with studies in Vienna and then spent three years at Salzburg's Kaiserliche-Königliche
Staastgewerbescule. Qajar studied chemistry and typographic and photographic techniques such
as zincography, phototypy, photolithography, and galvanoplasty as well as practical skills
such as photo retouching.
After his return to Tehran, Qajar printed maps of Iranian towns, but the meager success he
experienced as a printer caused him to turn to photography. By 1883, he was a photographer
in the Qajar court of Nāṣir al-Dīn Shāh with the title of Royal Private Photographer. He
also taught photography at Dār ul-Funun. Over the years Qajar was sent on assignment to
photograph both new and ancient buildings in places such as Khurāsān, Ray, Qum, Tabrīz,
Kirmānshāh, Masshad, and Kāshān. He photographed urban development in towns throughout Iran
and documented archeological and historical sites including Astarabad, the birthplace of the
Qajar dynasty. In short, Abdullah Mirza Qajar had moved from one type of visual mapping to
another, recording the territories of Persia, and especially areas of geopolitical
importance to the dynasty, with his camera.
After the assassination of Nāṣir al-Dīn Shāh in 1896, whose funeral Qajar photographed,
Qajar's commissions decreased. Aside from trips to Europe in 1900 and 1903 accompanying
Nāṣir al-Dīn Shāh's successor, Muẓaffar al-Dīn Shāh, as special photographer, Qajar seems
to have received few new royal commissions. He spent the remainder of his career as head of
the Royal Printing Office.
Sources Consulted:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Finding aid for the Nafisi
Family Photograph Albums of Qajar Iran, FSA.A2010.05.
https://sova.si.edu/record/FSA.A2010.05?s=0&n=10&t=C&q=*%3A*&i=0
Pinguet, Catherine. "Le photographe Abdullah Mirza Qajar (1850-1909) et les funérailles de
Nassered Din-Shah (1896)." In: Adnan Sezer and Bruno Tartarin,
Perse. https://photo-discovery.com
Stepanian, Arman. "A Study of Aesthetics in the Works of Photographers during Qajar Reign,"
Aks (
Picture: Scientific, Cultural
& Artistic Monthly
), vol. 12, no. 140 (Oct. 23-Nov. 21, 1998).
http://www.qajarpages.org/qajarphotoart.html
Contact
Library Reproductions
and Permissions
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Abdullah Mirza Qajar album of Iran, between 1883 and 1896, The Getty Research Institute,
Los Angeles, Accession no. 2021.R.15.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2021r15
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Acquired in 2021.
The collection was processed and the finding aid written by Beth Ann Guynn in 2022.
The collection was digitized by the repository in 2022 and the images are available
online:
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/2021r15
Scope and Content of Collection
The album contains 61 albumen photographs of Iran taken by Abdullah Mirza Qajar between
1883 and 1896. Although there are a few bird's-eye views of Tehran and some images of Qajar
buildings, the photographs primarily depict buildings in ruins or disrepair located near
towns and villages or in isolated settings, and are thus representative of the photographic
campaigns Qajar made throughout Persia. Locales depicted include Kerman, Khurāsān, Qom, Ray,
Dāmghān, Bāstāan, Qazvīn, Ribat-ī Machi, and Radkan. While many of the photographs include
horsemen, in only a few are humans the main subject: one photograph depicts a pottery vendor
sitting in his shop; another shows fishermen standing along a shore holding their catches,
and the third depicts bathers at a watering hole.
The album is half bound in brown leather with gilt bands at corners and decorative gilt
bands on the spine. The photographs are numbered in their negatives.
The titles of the individual photographs were devised by the archivist.
Arranged in a single series:
Series I: Abdullah Mirza
Qajar album of Iran, between 1883 and 1896.
Mosques -- Iran
Minarets -- Iran
Iran -- Antiquities
Iran -- Description and travel
Photograph albums -- Iran -- 19th century
Photographs, Original.
Albumen prints -- Iran -- 19th century
Qajar, Abdullah Mizra, 1850-1909