A Comparative Visual Analysis of Nineteenth-Century Iranian Portrait Photography and Persian Painting
A COMPARATIVE VISUAL ANALYSIS OF NINETEENTH-CENTURY IRANIAN PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY AND PERSIAN PAINTING
Carmen Peréz González
SUMMARY
The field of research of my dissertation is nineteenth-century Iranian portrait photography. The goal of this research is to demonstrate that photography is always a construction of reality, regardless of the photographer's nationality. I am specifically interested in exploring how indigenous Iranian photographers constructed their own realities in contrast to how foreign photographers constructed Iranian’s realities.
The aim of this dissertation is to analyze photographs in order to show this cultural conditioning in the creation of images. The corpus consists of around 5.000 portrait photographs I collected, and around 3.000 Persian miniature and Qajar paintings, as well as a corpus of Western nineteenth-century portrait photography (around 5.000 photographs). Both Western and Iranian scholars’ research on nineteenth-century Western photography in Iran regards mainly an historical approach, and most of the publications in the West on nineteenth-century photography in Iran deal with the work of Western photographers. Yet, the amount of photographs made by Iranian photographers is far larger than we knew about in the West, and this corpus extends by far the one produced by Western photographers..
Most literature on nineteenth-century Iranian indigenous photography has been published in Persian and is not translated into any other language. And even if there are studies in the field of indigenous nineteenth-century Iranian photography, there is no in-depth study of the work of Iranian photographers from an visual analytical perspective. Therefore, my approach to early Iranian photography is an analytical one based on the visual analysis of photographs taken by Iranian photographers in the nineteenth century. While applying visual analysis, I take into consideration the cultural components of the image.
My research concentrates on the visual analysis of specific elements found in nineteenth-century Iranian photography that have been inherited from the Iranian visual arts (i.e. painting) tradition. More specifically, the research undertakes a comparative study of the Iranian painting tradition and nineteenth-century Iranian portrait photography. The elements identified and analyzed are:
1. Mirror-like composition due to the visual laterality phenomenon, defined here as the influence of the direction of writing on the composition in works of art, particularly in photography;
2. Use of calligraphic inscriptions of text within the photographic space;
3. Use of traditional Iranian portraiture poses, such as kneeling, in contrast with sitting or standing;
4. The understanding of space in photographic composition: isometrical perspective, vertical composition, grid structure layout and diffuse compositions.
5. The mixed aesthetics present in nineteenth-century Iranian photography due to the appropriation of Western elements.
This research is based upon an interdisciplinary approach that includes the theory of photography, Islamic art history, neuroscience, post-colonial studies and world art studies. I have build a theoretical framework to analyze nineteenth-century photographs in their cultural components, with Iranian photography as a case study. However, it is my contention that the same study could be undertaken with any other country.
Structure of dissertation
Each chapter is guided by a specific theoretical perspective. The photographic material will recur and be analyzed in the five chapters, according to the five topics mentioned above.
1. Visual Laterality
The main research question of this chapter concerns the way in which the direction of writing and reading of Iranian nineteenth-century photographers influenced the composition of the photographs. If pictures are “read” from left to right (the direction of writing of all Western languages), the opposite should apply to those languages written from right to left (such as Farsi). Therefore Iranian photographers would produce “mirror-images” of those made by Western photographers. This is supported by studies in the field of visual laterality in neuropsychology and perception psychology, that are basic to build a theoretical framework to approach this phenomenon. On the basis of my research, I can state that the direction of the script is directly related to the composition of works of art; the direction of writing is one of the cultural components that constitute a photograph.
2. Text
This chapter deals with the use and role of calligraphy in Persian painting tradition and the influence that this has had on nineteenth-century Iranian photography, analyzed from three angles: content, meaning, and spatial organization. Text/calligraphy and image have been always closely related in the Iranian visual culture tradition, mostly influenced and inherited from the Persian painting tradition. The influence of the traditional use of calligraphy or text in painting and in nineteenth-century photography is more than apparent, and the function of the calligraphic inscriptions used in Persian painting has both an aesthetic and an informative purpose. The way in which the text or calligraphic inscription has been implemented within the pictorial and photographic space is also related: sometimes within cartouches, other times it flows freely in the artwork’s space. Interestingly, regardless of the content or meaning of the script, the language used in the inscriptions placed on photographs is always a poetic one.
3. Pose
This chapter is devoted to the topic of pose, regarding: the use of the traditional kneeling pose in Persian miniature painting and Qajar portraiture; the difference of pose and objects held by men and women in painting and later in photography; Western photo-studio’s modes, such as the use of chairs; hybrid poses derived from the traditional Persian culture and the (new) Western influence. As far as the objects are concerned, the traditionally depicted objects on Persian miniature painting and Qajar portraiture (tasbi, flowers, water-pipe, swords, cushion, etc) are also to be found in nineteenth-century Iranian photography. The women would normally hold musical instruments and the men religiuos objects, swords, flowers or water-pipes.
4. Space
This chapter studies the understanding and formal use of space in the Iranian painting tradition and its influence on nineteenth-century Iranian photography. The arrangement of space in Persian miniature painting regards topics such as the non-linear perspective approach or the isometrical perspective to project a three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional picture plane; the existence of multiple centres of attention (diffuse composition); the grid layout structure; and the vertical composition/vertical perspective. I have created a theoretic model to classify the corpus of paintings and photographs according to spatial components. For the paintings corpus I have defined three groups: diffuse composition / grid structure; isometrical perspective and vertical composition / vertical structure. For the photographic corpus I have defined two groups: diffuse composition / grid structure and vertical composition / vertical structure. Persian miniatures employ diffuse composition and grid structure layout to achieve a multiple-centre or diffuse composition that is at the same time spatial and temporal. Often the proper structure of the buildings, the architectural structure, that composes the painting, help to stress this multiple-centred composition dividing the space into blocks; and the third dimension is brought to life with the help of receding planes and at the same time allows several scenes to happen simultaneously. Furthermore, by using the isometric system of projection they provide a consistent usage of space, one of the many influences that Persian miniature painting had from Chinese traditional painting. The combination of these two strategies to suggest space is, in my opinion, unique to the traditional Persian miniature.
5. Western Influences
The final chapter is devoted to the interaction between Western and Iranian photographers, and the influence of Western aesthetics/photographers on Iranian native portrait photography. The group of indigenous photographers that were predominantly exposed to this foreign influence were the court photographers, in contrast to the bazaar or local photographers. It showed that the aesthetics of Iranian photographers were the product of travels that Western and Iranian photographers undertook in both directions. Francois Carlhiée, Luigi Montabone, and Antoin Sevruguin were the most influential Western photographers on court photographers: Carhliée introduced the Victorian portrait’s aesthetics and studio paraphernalia, and the cyanotype process to Iranian court photographers; Montabone introduced hand-colored photography and the technique of vigneting; and Sevruguin introduced a pictorialist approach in the field of Iranian photography. Reza Akkasbashi and Abdullah Qajar, both court photographers, travelled to Europe and were also influenced by Western photographers that became teachers at court.
Model
This dissertation presents an in-depth visual analysis of photographic material and subsequently a model to visually analyze and compare corpuses of photographs and paintings. This model aims to unravel images into their cultural components in a multi-layered process similarly, but in the reversed direction as the images were constructed. It can be resumed as follows and applied to other corpuses: define the photographic corpus; define the corpus of paintings; conduct a visual analysis of both corpuses to establish differences and similarities; define the cultural components found after visual analysis of the photographic and painting material; and lastly, establish categories or groups of photographs that represent the cultural components defined in the previous section.
The research conducted in this dissertation has shown that different aesthetic models of representation existed in the nineteenth century, related to their specific socio-political and cultural context, such as in this case Iran.
